Ole Gunnar Solskjaer exclusive interview before Man Utd v Istanbul Basaksehir 24 November 2020

He loves United still and he always strikes me as such an infectious character. Is that what you think too?
“Oh yeah, he’s a Red through and through. I was disappointed when we let him go because he’s such a valuable player and person to have in and around the group. He’s just one of those players with Man United DNA so he knows what we feel about him and what I feel about him. We’ll have a good conversation after the game. It’s a fantastic family and of course I signed Fabio for Cardiff, so I’ve enjoyed their company many times.”

Could you always tell them apart, or not?

“Actually, to be fair, I did, yeah. Obviously their playing style was similar and the resemblance is there. We always spoke about why don’t we play one of them in the first half and one of them in the second half, and no-one will notice! But they have their unique traits, both of them.”

It wasn’t the result you wanted in Istanbul but it’s still a very strong position in what is a really hard group, isn’t it?

“If you say six points after three games, halfway through, you’re more than halfway to getting the points tally you need normally. It’s a good start, but we know this one is an important game. We have to perform better than we did last time. It’s not good enough for us as one point would have made a difference for us in that game as well. We go into this and we have to attack at home, put them under pressure and create chances. Get crosses in or get men in the box, we need to go about them.”