SheffieldWednesday

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer bemoans fixture scheduling ahead of Manchester derby

06-Mar-2020 10:00:58 | Four-Four-Two

Ole Gunnar Solskjaers determination to beat Manchester City is as clear as his frustration over the Football Associations scheduling that saw Manchester United play their FA Cup tie 24 hours after their rivals.United cruised through to the quarter-finals at Derby on Thursday evening, when Luke Shaws second career goal and a brace from January signing Odion Ighalo wrapped up a 3-0 win.It was as comfortable as United could have hoped for in the end at Pride Park, where Solskjaer expressed his annoyance at the way his sides preparations have been impeded by the scheduling of the fifth-round tie. Derby away Derby day #MUFC pic.twitter.com/lL3WwWKIDY Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 6, 2020Europa League football has meant the Red Devils are well used to playing on Thursdays, but City have an extra day to prepare for Sundays Old Trafford encounter after facing Sheffield Wednesday the previous evening.Its that help we get from the FA again that extra 24 hours that theyve had, Solskjaer said.I cannot believe why theres a derby on Sunday and weve got to play Thursday night. Whats the point in that? That doesnt level the playing field.City also had an extra day ahead of Decembers derby at the Etihad Stadium, although Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial scored in a shock 2-1 win for United.United beat City at the Etihad in December and January (Martin Rickett/PA)The United boss added: It was the same when we beat them last time to be fair, we played Wednesday and they played Tuesday.Those 24 hours are important, so weve got to be good at recovering now.Solskjaer aired a similar grievance about the Premier League after winning at Chelsea last month on a Monday evening, saying he could not understand why they did not play on the Saturday following the winter break.Asked if he had complained about the scheduling this time, the Norwegian said: No, Ive not. I dont think we can. Its one of those where you get told when youre going to play, so weve not got any help before this one.United may have less rest but they go into the derby with some momentum, having set up an FA Cup quarter-final with Norwich and taken their unbeaten run to nine matches in all competitions.That consistency has been lacking this season but Solskjaer has often got his side to rise to the big occasions, including Decembers Premier League win at the Etihad Stadium and a 1-0 triumph there the following month in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.But that second leg victory was not enough to make up for the 3-1 loss inflicted by Pep Guardiolas men at Old Trafford, where a meek start proved their undoing something Solskjaer knows cannot be repeated.When youre at home and you have to open up against a team like Man City, they will exploit that if youre not 100 per cent, the United boss said.It's time to hear from the boss! Here's Ole's take on tonight's FA Cup win #MUFC Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 5, 2020Sometimes being at home with your fans, you want to show them what you can do and beat your opponent, and sometimes you open too many spaces.Thats what we did for those 10-15 minutes or 20 minutes after they scored a worldie.Before then, it wasnt a problem, before Bernardo (Silva) scored in the top corner.It wasnt an issue until our heads went for a little while, so weve got to control our emotions more.And we have, we have learned, so thats an experience well bring into this game definitely.Harry Maguire is an injury doubt for Manchester United (Mike Egerton/PA)United head into the match against the Carabao Cup winners without star names Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba, while question marks remain over the availability of others for the Manchester derby.Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka need assessing having yet to train this week due to unspecified knocks, as does Harry Maguire after rolling his ankle in training and missing out against Derby the day of his 27th birthday.Well its touch and go because he rolled his ankle and he twisted his ankle but hopefully hell recover quickly, Solskjaer said.I wasnt going to rest him today so I didnt give him a day off birthday-wise but I hope hell be fit.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Simon Peach, PA Chief Football Writer'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '964a988c-a8e7-40a9-a8cd-6c8a2aa3f6f9'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:uk,paservice:sport:world'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football'); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Ole Gunnar Solskjaer bemoans fixture scheduling ahead of Manchester derby'});