Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insists Manchester United are “improving and evolving” despite a lacklustre start to the season.
United host Arsenal on Monday – a fellow Premier League heavyweight who have experienced mixed fortunes of late, albeit in far more entertaining fashion.
Solskjaer’s men are finding goals hard to come by and have not scored more than once in all competitions since their opening weekend 4-0 triumph against Chelsea.
Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford suffering respective thigh and groin problems has compounded matters, while Paul Pogba could also miss the Arsenal game after suffering an ankle setback on his return against Rochdale.
United needed penalties to defeat their League One foes in the EFL Cup on Wednesday, having only squeaked past Astana 1-0 in the Europa League the previous week.
48 – Ole Gunnar Solskjær has won 48 points from his 27 league games as Manchester United manager so far (W14 D6 L7); the exact same record & points tally that Jose Mourinho oversaw in his final 27 Premier League games in charge of the club. Mirror. #mufc #reddevils pic.twitter.com/YFER4I9Jb1
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 24, 2019
Those games sandwiched a 2-0 reverse at West Ham but Solskjaer maintains things are heading in the right direction overall.
“For me it’s a team improving and evolving,” he said. “It’s a young team, the culture is there.
“I see them every single day in training and we don’t have any issues with attitude or work rate or desire.
“Now, it’s can we trust ourselves? Can we find that little bit of composure?
A celebrated fans’ favourite during his playing days, Solskjaer is grateful to still have the Old Trafford faithful on board, nine months on from succeeding Jose Mourinho.
“I’m amazed again by our supporters. If you listen to the crowd at Old Trafford, they’re amazing, they keep supporting us,” he said.
“Now is the time to do that. We are going through a leaner patch trophy-wise in the last few years and also now with results in the last few games.”
To counter his problems in attack, Solskjaer was able to report some positive news on left-back Luke Shaw, who has returned to training for the first time since suffering a hamstring injury at the end of last month.
“Luke’s back in training so let’s see how he is. Let’s see how he reacts to the next couple of days,” he added,
“He’s been working really hard, we hope to see him before the international break.”
