Manchester United 3-2 Southampton: 5 ways how Ole Gunnar Solskjaer masterminded the comeback win

Modified Mar 02, 2019 18:26 GMT

OGS got his tactics right in the second half

#2. Making subtle midfield changes

When his team lacked inspiration, Solskjaer decided to find it within his team. He realized that Pogba was heavily marked and decided to make an important change to his team. He pushed Andreas Pereira forward and asked Pogba to drop behind and carry out a more defensive role. The move turned out to be a masterstroke.

Pereira had an instant impact and his eye for the final pass gave Southampton a lot of trouble. United looked deadly at the counter with him pushed forward and on one such move, United had drawn level. Pereira took the ball as United pushed the bodies forward and even though he had quite a few options, unleashed an inch-perfect strike from outside the box that drew his team level. But he was not done yet, as he set up Lukaku next to score United’s second.

However, United’s high intensity and desire to catch the opposition off guard took a toll as the Brazilian looked tired. The Norwegian then brought on Fred and asked Pogba to push forward, enabling his team to keep the intensity going. It finally paid as Lukaku scored the decisive third goal.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

Know More

Edited by Lennard Surrao