MANCHESTER UNITED boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has lifted the lid on the note he passed to Juan Mata in the second half of last night’s 1-0 FA Cup victory over Wolves.
The match had been dwindling towards another stalemate, with chances and excitement in scarce supply at Old Trafford.
But with United beginning to lose their shape and structure in the second half, Solskjaer felt the need to make a change.
And when asked about the note passed to Mata after the match, the Norwegian said: “It was just a spell there that we struggled a little bit and players were playing more off the cuff than they should be doing and when they swapped Traore over we swapped Dan over for a little while and it worked.
“Dan was straight through on goal two seconds after and its not often you create that many clear opportunities that we did with Dan.
“There were some great runs in behind from him and he needs to learn that composure from Juan. An absolute beauty of a goal. It was great timing on his run.
“Youre a little bit scared that its offside but, no, sometimes the brain is quicker than the feet.”
Shortly after the change, the diminutive Spaniard broke the deadlock for United, running onto a perfectly timed pass from Anthony Martial, before delicately dinking the ball over John Ruddy.
But after the game, the former Chelsea creator was reluctant to reveal what exactly was written on the sheet of paper.
When quizzed by BT Sport, he said: “It was a list of grocery shopping. Bread, milk and all these things!
“Its not good [having too much time]. Its better not to have time when youre facing the goalkeeper but luckily I put the ball in the net.
“It wasnt offside. I was waiting for the VAR you have to wait nowadays but Im happy with the goal and the performance.
“They are a difficult team and they play in a certain way and do it very well. They are very well organised and its difficult to break them down.
“But definitely today is a good result for us and now we have a big one coming so hopefully we can keep it up.”
United’s reward for their victory is a fourth round clash away to the winner of the postponed replay between Tranmere and Watford.
