Manchester United boosted by Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and preseason wins but questions remain for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

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Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer watches his side play AC Milan in Cardiff. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:00pm, 6 Aug 2019Updated: 4:38pm, 6 Aug 2019

With Manchester United victorious in all six preseason games including Saturday’s penalties win over AC Milan in Cardiff, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer left the Welsh capital in a better frame of mind than five years ago. He was sacked by Cardiff City near the start of the 2014-15 season when his supporters in the dressing room felt other players had taken advantage of his trusting, relaxed nature.

“He wanted us to play dominant football which was all he’d known at United and in Norway,” explains full-back Fabio da Silva, one of his advocates. “But he couldn’t. He didn’t have the players to do it. He was best leaving and it was a big shame.”

Five years on and Solskjaer is still trying to play dominant football. He feels he’s got the players now, though he wants more and, with the English Premier League season about to start he genuinely doesn’t know whether his most talented player Paul Pogba, with whom he has a positive relationship, will stay.

The arrival of Harry Maguire lifted the mood among fans who’d been frustrated by the summer’s limited transfer activity. Encouraged by assistant Mike Phelan who gave Maguire his Premier League debut at Hull City, Solskjaer pushed for Maguire, just as he did for Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Dan James. The Norwegian didn’t sit back and let executives do the deal, he was constantly on the phone so that the player knew how much he was desired. He did that at Cardiff, turning up at players’ houses and learning about their families too. Solskjaer has clear ideas about how and where the new signings will play, not that the rapid, callow James has done enough to be considered an automatic starter just yet.

Maguire’s character was a big selling point for a dressing room short of them, and Wan-Bissaka’s defensive attributes have already led to his teammates joking that nobody can get past him.