Ole Gunnar Solskaje has hailed his side’s defensive display following Manchester United’s 1-0 win over Leicester City in the Premier League.
Marcus Rashford continued his brilliant form as he netted the only goal of the match. The win lifted United to fifth position just two points within fourth placed Chelsea.
Paul Pogba again proved his mettle as he set up Rashford with a beautifully lofted ball and the United academy product finished with super precision.
Leicester ramped up the intensity in the second half but the defensive pairing of Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly stood tall and denied every possible attack to keep the Red Devils alive in the top four race.
Solskjaer insists he is very pleased with the way his defenders have performed. “Fantastic to have a clean sheet.
“And they played well against Arsenal together. Today, we started a little sloppy – Eric knows – but they really came good.
“It’s a first [clean sheet] in a while, we’ve had three games now, Burnley, Brighton and Arsenal, where we’ve conceded after a couple of clean sheets, but that’s important for us.
“When you’ve got players like Rashford, Pogba, Martial, Sanchez, all them quick ones up top, you’ve got a great chance of winning the game, that’s the foundation of a proper solid, defensive performance, and the keeper of course, two fantastic saves today as well. He’s kept us in it.
“Of course it was [heart-stopping] towards the end. When you’re 1-0 up, anything can happen in that box and I think that Harry Maguire has got a magnet on his head! Because it always dropped to him, a fantastic player in the box.
“So we knew we had to defend against him but our lads, they blocked, they put their body on the line so it was a fantastic effort and they were fighting for each other.
“Leicester are a good team and we knew this was going to be one of these games that if you don’t get the first goal, if they can counter-attack on you, you’re struggling.
“But we started well, got the first goal, so very pleased today.”
