Solskjaer Explains Reasons Behind Man Utd Switch to Back Five

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says injuries caused him to reshuffle his side to a back five system - but he has been encouraged by how things turned out.

The Red Devils drew 1-1 with Liverpool on Sunday with an encouraging performance before keeping another clean sheet in a narrow win over Partizan Belgrade on Thursday.

Most presumed the tactical switch at the weekend was an effort to combat Liverpool's feared front three.

Yet Solskjaer says the desire to allow players to operate in their most comfortable positions to help ease the pressure of their injury crisis was the motivating factor behind the change.

With a number of players such as Axel Tuanzebe, Paul Pogba, Luke Shaw and Nemanja Matic close to returning, Solskjaer is now considering whether to stick or twist with his new formula.

“I think injuries have made us get into the position where the performances didn’t come and we had fit centre-backs, good centre-backs and quality centre-backs,” 

Solskjaer said. “We’ve got Jesse [Lingard] back, who can play in a three in midfield and the players who played for us on Thursday, for example, Sergio [Romero] played in a World Cup final, Marcos Rojo played in a back three in a World Cup final and [Phil Jones] and Harry [Maguire] played in a semi-final. Jesse played in his position.

“It’s just injuries have made us go into this position but it’s working quite well.”

The Red Devils have also boosted by the return of Anthony Martial, who scored the winner from the penalty spot on his first start since August.

“We’ve not created as many as we’d have liked and not scored as many as we’d have liked,” Solskjaer added.

“Now Anthony is back, he got a goal, and I’m sure we’ll see us improve as a team with Anthony in the side. He does gives us something different.”