Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been heard shouting at Marcus Rashford to target an Arsenal player who “cannot defend”.
Various reporters have tweeted about Solskjaer shouting this instruction to Rashford, urging the England international to run at one Gunners player, though it’s not entirely clear which one.
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See below as Charles Watts and Miguel Delaney claim Solskjaer was saying this about Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli…
Solskjaer telling Rashford that Martinelli "cannot defend" and to take him on "whenever you like".
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) January 30, 2021
Solskjaer has just come to edge of technical area, pointed at edge of Arsenal's area and gone "Marcus, he cannot defend. He CANNOT defend. Take him on if you want."
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) January 30, 2021
Whereas James Olley says the Norwegian tactician was referring to AFC left-back Cedric Soares…
Am sat closer to the pitch than usual and it sounded very much like Solskjaer said to Rashford "take him on if you want, he cannot defend" about Cedric.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) January 30, 2021
Either way, it’s an awkward thing to be picked up, with Solskjaer very clearly identifying what he perceives as a weak link in Mikel Arteta’s team.
It’s 0-0 at the time of writing, with both these sides slightly underwhelming so far in this evening’s Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium.
Perhaps Rashford can take his manager’s advice on board and liven things up a bit with a decent run at this player who supposedly can’t defend…
No sense