Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is confident that his side will hit the ground running when the Premier League resumes his month.
The English top-flight is to return on June 17 after several months of COVID-19 pandemic-enforced inactivity.
United are to resume the season away to Tottenham Hotspur on June 19 — their first match since beating LASK 5-0 in the Europa League on March 12.
Photo: Reuters
That victory in Austria extended United’s unbeaten run to 11 matches and Solskjaer is in no doubt as to what his side must do to be ready as they continue their quest for a place in next season’s Champions League.
“The first game is two weeks from today, so we need to step up the training and get an edge to our game again,” Solskjaer told United’s Web site on Friday.
“Everyone knows that we will have to be at our best, have to be focused” against Tottenham, he said.
Photo: Reuters
“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,” Solskjaer added.
Following the Spurs match, United face fellow European hopefuls Sheffield United at Old Trafford on June 24 before traveling to Brighton on June 30 — after an FA Cup quarter-final against Norwich City on June 27.
Former United striker Solsjkaer said that his squad had been preparing for a congested schedule.
“Training has been about recapping what we did well, tweaking maybe one or two things and looking at some new ideas, but hopefully we can see a lot of what we saw towards the end before the lockdown,” he said. “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.”
“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,” he said. “That’s vital for me in a team. That’s one of the main things, that we are a team and the team goes before anything else.”
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