Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Friday imposed confidence on his players ahead of the restart of the English Premier League on June 17. United will travel to Tottenham on June 20 to resume their season after a gap of more than three months when all forms of sports were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve been looking forward to these games for ages really,” said Solskjaer as quoted on the official website of Manchester United. “It does make it feel like ‘yes, we’re here soon.’ The first game is two weeks from today so we need to step up the training and get an edge to our game again.
“Everyone knows that we will have to be at our best, have to be focused [against Tottenham]. We know it’s a big game for everyone. We had Chelsea when we started the league this season so I’m confident that our players can go into the Tottenham game with that mentality of going there to play a very good game of football.”
After a paltry first half of the season, the Solskjaer-led side seemed to bounce back after the winter break. The Red Devils are yet to lose a match in 2020 and the manager remained hopeful that they would pick it up from where they had left before the lockdown.
“Training has been about recapping what we did well, tweaking maybe one or two things and looking at some new ideas,” said the boss, “but hopefully we can see a lot of what we saw towards the end before the lockdown.
“We’ve got games coming weekend, midweek, weekend for a spell so you have to focus on ourselves and not just on that one, first game.”
When asked how the atmosphere was within the first-team squad, Ole seemed proud of the spirit that is growing amongst the players.
“In any interview, I’d say, ‘Yes the mood is great and the spirit’s good’ but it has been really good,” he insisted.
“I think everyone can see over the last few months how the players have behaved and dealt with the situation and how we as a club have dealt with it. The players have kept themselves fit as well, which has been great.
“The weather was fantastic when they got going in small groups and gradually now, as we’ve got into contact training, you can see a little bit more of the edge but also the camaraderie and team bonding.
“That’s vital for me in a team,” stressed Solskjaer. “That’s one of the main things, that we are a team and the team goes before anything else.”