Ole Gunnar Solskjaer tries to keep his emotions in check in the stands. Against Leeds last season he found it impossible.
As his Manchester United side thrashed Leeds 6-2, Solskjaer was more animated than ever.
These pictures highlight just how involved Solskjaer got as his side scored goal after goal in an entertaining December clash at Old Trafford.
Can United repeat the entertaining win?
Solskjaer had one moan after the victory, that his team could do little about. He said that he wished supporters could have been there to see it.
Speaking to the club website, Solskjaer said: “Just imagine if that had 75,000 people here, it would have gone down in history as one of the better Man United performances against Leeds here at home.”
Scoring six past Leeds won’t be easy. The second game against the Whites ended 0-0. Clearly they had tightened up.
This weekend though, United will have a packed stadium for a competitive game for the first time since the Manchester derby in March 2020.
The crowd will be a huge factor to United’s advantage this weekend and that is one of the reasons the players will be looking forward to the match so much.
United exploited the gaps
The reason for United’s success against Leeds last time was down to a combination of hard work on and off the pitch.
Hard work in the tactics and analysis room gave United a game plan which the players successfully exploited.
Solskjaer explained: “The way we approached the game, of course, we’ve shown them videos and analysed [Leeds] and they were wide-eyed, the boys, when they saw the clips we showed them. The spaces that can appear, or not appear if we don’t do the work. They did the work, spot on.”
One of the challenges this time around is that Leeds have also not played a competitive game for months, have a handful of new playersl, and the usually efficient tactician Marcelo Bielsa will no doubt have come up with a few tweaks and surprises during the summer window.
A win of any kind will do for United on Saturday. Demanding six again would just be greedy. After United lost the opening game of the season 3-1 to Crystal Palace at Old Trafford last season, supporters just want to get off to a good start, and keep the early optimistic dream of a title challenge going.
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