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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Richard Fay

Solskjaer gives fascinating insight into how Manchester United training prepares for bad referee decisions

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has provided a fascinating insight into Manchester United's training techniques by revealing the club often make deliberate refereeing mistakes in their practice sessions.

United overcame some questionable officiating last weekend when Edinson Cavani saw a superbly-worked goal disallowed against Tottenham for a perceived foul by Scott McTominay in the build-up.

Son Heung-min went down clutching his face after a stray arm from the Scotland international, before he then put Spurs ahead in the match just six minutes later.

United's heads could have easily dropped after such a scenario but the team fought back in the second-half, turning the game on its head to eventually win 3-1.

It was a superb demonstration of the team spirit at United and now Solskjaer has revealed how it was a situation which his side had actually planned for.

"Everybody knows that this group of players has so much footballing talent, but last weekend they really showed us what their mentality is all about," he wrote in United Review.

"It would have been so easy to lose focus after having a brilliant goal from Edi disallowed, especially when we then fell behind so quickly, but the lads regrouped, kept calm and really showed their character by dominating the second half. How you react when decisions don't go your way is a test that is just part of football.

"We've frequently made deliberately bad refereeing decisions during training in order to remind the players that these things happen - and sometimes we do honestly get them wrong anyway, so we know what a hard job it is - and I was really pleased to see them coming together in the face of adversity and reacting the right way."

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