Ole Gunnar Solskjaer thinks Manchester United will have to win all of their games if they are to finish inside the top four this season.
With five games remaining, United are just four points behind fourth-placed Leicester and five behind Chelsea, their game in hand being against relegation-threatened Aston Villa to come on Thursday night.
Manchester United know that a win in all of those games – the last of which is against Leicester – will now guarantee Champions League football, and despite the Foxes only winning one of their games since the restart, the United boss reckons his side will need to win all five.
“Yeah, I think so,” said the Norwegian at his pre-match press conference.
“You never know what is going to happen, the teams around us are playing well. We just focus on this one, the next one.
“If we win every single one of them, we are in the top four. We cannot rely on help from anyone else, we just have to do it ourselves. That’s to grow as a team and know that going into next season we can put a different challenge to other teams in front of us.”
Manchester United are currently enjoying a 16 game unbeaten streak which stretches back to January, the club bolstered by Bruno Fernandes’ arrival, and while Solskjaer admits such a run has delivered ‘confidence’, he added that that kind of form should be the norm for a club of United’s ambitions.
“As a footballer you know you can’t just pick out your confidence from the fridge. You have to get it from what you do every day in training, but the results, they matter.
“The last 16 games unbeaten gives us more confidence, but 16 games is nowhere near where a Manchester United team should strive towards.
“We can still go many games unbeaten if we concentrate on the right things, if we focus on the next one, the next one, the next one and then suddenly you’re stood there with 16. Hopefully, that can continue.”
Dortmund set deadline and price tag Man United must meet to sign Sancho
See also – Eric Cantona and how he made us feel
