CARDIFF: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made an instant impact as Manchester United caretaker manager with Paul Pogba to the fore in a transformed performance from the final days of Jose Mourinho’s reign in a 5-1 thumping of Cardiff on Saturday.
Solskjaer has been put in charge until the end of the season after Mourinho was sacked on Tuesday and could not have asked for a better start in the Welsh capital thanks to Marcus Rashford’s free-kick. The visitors also had a slice of fortune when Ander Herrera’s strike deflected in to double their advantage.
But United shrugged off Victor Camarasa’s penalty, awarded for a dubious handball call on Rashford, with the sort of free-flowing play that appeared so scarcely under Mourinho as Anthony Martial started and finished a fine move also including Pogba and Jesse Lingard. And Lingard struck twice more in the second half to secure United’s biggest win of the season so far. As well as getting Solskjaer off to a flying start, victory also sees United crucially close the gap on the Premier League top four to eight points thanks to Chelsea’s 1-0 home defeat by Leicester earlier in the day.
Pogba was forced to watch the full 90 minutes from the bench as Liverpool inflicted the final blow to Mourinho’s time in charge with a 3-1 win that left United 19 points off the top after just 17 games. (AFP)
