Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hit back at Louis van Gaal and defended his tactics after the former Manchester United boss banded them “park-the-bus and counter-attack”.
Van Gaal took a dig at Solskjaer last week, giving a withering assessment of the newly-appointed permanent United manager’s style of play.
But the Norwegian, who began his full-time reign with a 2-1 home win over Watford on Saturday, laughed off Van Gaal’s criticism and said there was nothing wrong with a solid defence and counter-attacking approach.
“Van Gaal is entitled to his opinion,” he said.
“We’ve been looking at games. Some games, we’ve pressed really high and won the ball up there and dominated.
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“He’s probably talking more about the PSG game, which was a game that we had to defend really well in the circumstances and counter-attack.
“It’s about where you win the ball. You want to defend, to win the ball to go forward. You have to win the ball to attack and for me there’s two ways. Can you attack quickly, like we did today — why not? As long as your intention is, when you win the ball, to attack.”
Van Gaal, who was United boss for the 2014-15 and 2015-2016 seasons, claimed Solskjaer owed his successful start in the job to his predecessor Jose Mourinho, who left him with a solid defensive foundation on which to build.
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“The foundation in any team is to play well without the ball,” said the former Red Devils striker. “If you can do that, you’ve got a great chance. If that’s high pressure, low pressure, medium - sometimes we have to vary that. I’m very happy and grateful I’ve inherited a team that’s been through [different managers].
“Players here – most of them – they’ve had Mourinho, they’ve had Van Gaal, they’ve had Moyes and Fergie, so they’ve had a great education. They know both sides of the game.
“Of course we will have to add one or two players, but it’s a nucleus that’s been here since the gaffer was here, so they know what I will demand and expect from them.”
