Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is convinced Manchester United remain on the right track despite needing to battle for a point against Everton on Sunday.
Substitute Mason Greenwood struck a 77th-minute equaliser as United claimed a 1-1 draw against Duncan Ferguson’s rejuvenated Toffees at Old Trafford.
The result left United sixth in the Premier League, a place below where they began the weekend, as Solskjaer reaches the first anniversary of his appointment as manager this coming week.
With 25, United are one point worse off than they were when Solskjaer succeeded Jose Mourinho on December 19 last year – but only four points off the top four as opposed to 13 when the Portuguese left.
Solskjaer said: “I’ve really enjoyed it, I think we’re on the right track. One 10-minute spell here was poor, just before they scored, but I’m not going to change my mind from before the weekend.
“I’m looking forward to going into work again because these boys want to improve and learn.
“You always want wins, and you want the momentum to carry on, but we’ve had three wins since the Aston Villa draw.
“We’ve taken a few steps forward and this is not a big step backwards, it’s more of a stand-still, not improving. We are, as a team and a group, going forward.”
United needed to come from behind because Everton, after last week’s victory over Chelsea, again showed a level of commitment that was absent in the final days of Marco Silva’s reign.
Former Toffees striker Ferguson has revitalised the team as caretaker manager, setting the tone with an impassioned performance on the touchline.
The Scot gesticulated and shouted at his players throughout and the message, as he stood in shirt sleeves in the cold and rain, was clear.
Everton are now three points above the dropzone but, despite the change of mood, Ferguson again insisted he was not interested in the job long term.
He said: “I think it’s buying them a bit of time until they can get the right man in. We need the best manager in the world to manage Everton Football Club and I’ve not got the right experience.
“I’m all for us bringing in a top manager and if I can be part of it, brilliant.”
There was controversy over Everton’s 36th-minute goal as David De Gea missed the ball and it rebounded in off Victor Lindelof. It was allowed after a VAR check for a potential foul on the United keeper by Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Ferguson said: “Someone said he put his arm across the goalkeeper but they’ve got VAR haven’t they? So obviously it’s a good goal or VAR would have picked up on it.”
Solskjaer disagreed, saying: “It was a clear foul. But there’s no point me complaining.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here