Ole Gunnar Solskjaer revealed that goal scoring hero Luke Shaw nearly didn’t play in the Manchester derby and Alex Telles was prepared to take his place.
The left-back scored his second goal of the season as Manchester United earned a 2-0 win over the league-leaders.
Man Utd's win ended City’s 21-game unbeaten run but Solskjaer revealed Shaw nearly didn’t make it into the starting XI.
What was said?
Solskjaer revealed it was touch and go for Shaw up until kick-off and Telles was prepared to step up if the England international didn’t make it through the warm- up.
The United boss said: “Absolutely incredible, he was a massive doubt until after the warm-up he had to wait until after the warm-up to be cleared to play, so Alex was ready. Luke’s performance was top, he’s aggressive hard to play against one against one. When he goes forward on those runs he’s unstoppable. He’s improved so much and is improving all the time and I’m delighted for him.”
How many times has Telles played before?
The full-back arrived in the summer window to give Shaw competition and it has made the 25-year-old thrive. Shaw’s form has seen opportunity for Telles limited and he has made just 15 starts across all competitions this season.
What else was said?
Solskjaer hailed the performance of his Manchester United players after they recorded an impressive 2-0 victory against City and extended their unbeaten run on the road in the Premier League to 22 games.
Solskjaer said: “It’s a marathon it’s been a relentless season it’s been a relentless year for everyone and a challenging year for everyone and the footballers as well but we’re lucky enough that we can play football and I think we enjoy playing.
“Milan on Thursday we can’t prioritise one game in front of the other, we just have to count the numbers, who’s fit, who’s not fit for Thursday and go again. I feel we’re a better team than what we were 12, 16, 18 months ago we have improved massively, more robust and resilient and there’s more personality in the team that’s what I like.
“We have to draw on previous good experience and how did that feel out there we knew we had to suffer, we suffered a lot, they worked their nuts off.”