Solskjaer makes instant impact as Man Utd thrash Cardiff

Ole

Gunnar Solskjaer insisted having "good players" was the key to his

instant impact as Manchester United caretaker manager in a 5-1 thumping of

Cardiff on Saturday.

Not

since Alex Ferguson's final game in charge in 2013 had United scored five goals

in a single Premier League game and the Red Devils looked a side transformed

from the turgid football of Jose Mourinho's final days in charge.

"They

are very good players, talented players, they've approached the game properly

and worked hard. A Man Utd team should never be outworked," said

Solskjaer.

The

Norwegian has been put in charge until the end of the season after Mourinho was

sacked on Tuesday and could not have asked for a better start in the Welsh

capital.

As well

as getting Solskjaer off to a flying start, victory also sees United crucially

close the gap on the Premier League top four to eight points thanks to

Chelsea's 1-0 home defeat by Leicester earlier in the day.

"We're

eight points behind, so our job is to take one game at a time," added

Solskjaer.

"We

always play well in the second half of the season."

Paul

Pogba was forced to watch the full 90 minutes from the bench last weekend as

Liverpool inflicted the final blow to Mourinho's time in charge with a 3-1 win

that left United 19 points off the top after just 17 games.

The

French World Cup-winner was restored from the start for the first time in four

league games and looked far more like the player United splashed a then

world-record £89 million ($113 million) on in 2016 than the one that clashed

with his former boss off the field and disappointed on it for much of the past

two seasons.

- 'Nothing like' United this season -

"The

performance of the team was great and we are happy that the first game of the

manager starts like this," said Pogba. "It's important now to carry

on like that.

"We

can not play like this and win with five goals and then the next game

lose."

The

visiting fans enthusiastically chanted Solskjaer's name throughout and were

enjoying their side moving the ball around with a speed and accuracy more

reminiscent of his days as a player at Old Trafford when United dominated

English football.

"It's

nothing like they have been playing," said Cardiff boss Neil Warnock.

"We expected that from the teamsheet."

Pogba

was at the heart of United's best work and having been fouled for the free-kick

leading to Marcus Rashford's opener, his intelligent pass picked out Ander

Herrera, whose shot flicked off Greg Cunningham to loop over the helpless Neil

Etheridge to make it 2-0 inside half an hour.

If

Solskjaer's side were fortunate then, it was Cardiff who got a break nine

minutes later when the assistant referee adjudged Rashford to have handled

rather than control the ball with his shoulder inside the area.

Victor

Camarasa's perfectly-taken penalty could have sparked a collapse for a team

short on confidence in recent times.

Instead,

United responded resoundingly with a fantastic team goal as a quick interchange

of passes between Pogba and Jesse Lingard freed Anthony Martial to score his

ninth goal of the season.

Lingard

took responsibility from the spot just before the hour mark after another soft

penalty was awarded for a foul by Sol Bamba on the England international.

And Lingard was the beneficiary of another defence-splitting pass from Pogba a minute from time as he rounded Etheridge and slotted into an empty net.

AFP