Exclusive Q and A Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on LASK test Brandon Williams new deal and Europa League

Is that something that’s really important to a young squad’s development – having that first trophy to build upon?
“I think it’s important and we’re always hungry to improve all the time. And we’re hungry to win. When you’re at Man United, there are two things that matter: improving and winning. We want to lift a trophy, of course. The time that you do it is a great occasion for everyone, getting your hands on any trophy, and some of these need to get that feeling.”

Should we get through the second leg against LASK unscathed, it sets up this mini tournament in Germany – what’s the mindset and approach going into what is an unusual format for a club competition?
“We’ve all been part of tournaments, maybe World Cups and different types of tournaments like the Euros or Under-21 tournaments, so it’s territory that we’ve been in with national teams more or less, but now as a club side we’re looking forward to it and hopefully we’ll last until 21 August and then we’ve had a 12-day stay in Germany. First we need to get through the LASK game. If we don’t do that, we don’t deserve to be in Germany anyway. When we get there, there’s one focus and that’s lifting a trophy.”

How good will it be for the squad to all be together as a group?
“Normally you go away in July/August on a pre-season tour, [so] it’s a different setting as it’s about going there and winning. We’ve got to go and perform in every game, it’s not like you give minutes to players just to get ready for the new season. It will be strange to fight for trophies in the middle-to-end of August but the group has grown together this season, the atmosphere is good and the culture in the group is improving all the time. Of course, we still need to improve and get the consistency with our performances. We’ve had some highs and we want those highs to be even higher than they have been this season, so it’s a continuing process really.”