Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has fired back at Paul Scholes and Owen Hargreaves and told them “its easy up there” to cast judgement on selection.
The Manchester United boss saw his side win 6-2 against Roma in the first-leg of their Europa League semi-final.
Barring an exceptional collapse Solskjaer will be leading his side out in a final, but it wasn’t all going well at half-time.
United were 2-1 down to the Italians and Scholes urged the Norwegian to ring the changes in midfield.
Bruno Fernandes, Fred and Scott McTominay played in a three in the middle of the park – as has often been the case the season.
When quizzed on Scholes’ comments Solskjaer said: “Yeah. You can say that. It’s easy up there thinking who should play, who should not play.”
He stuck to his guns and was rewarded with five second-half goals and underlined his faith in the team before challenging the former United duo to pick a team.
It’s a very good team, work really well against Tottenham. I said before Mason should be disappointed not playing but it’s about the balance,” added Solskjaer.
“Maybe those [Scholes and Hargreaves] two should leave players out themselves and pick a team with balance.”
United’s clinical second-half now has them within 90 minutes of the final in Gdansk next month.
Solskjaer again saw his side come from behind, something that has become synonymous with this team, and praised his side’s attitude in front of goal.
He said: “We know we have got creative players who can create big moments. Paul Pogba’s position today was very good in that position, he’s allowed some freedom.
“He’s got the foundation behind him. The difference today is we took most of our chances.”
