Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insists he has no need to address Manchester United’s penalty policy after another miss by Paul Pogba stole the headlines in their 1-1 draw after Ruben Neves superbly cancelled out a fine Anthony Martial opener at Molineux, the World Cup winner took the second-half spot-kick he won – despite Marcus Rashford’s successful conversion in the win against Chelsea.
Rui Patricio saved the spot-kick and, angered by the players’ discussion about the taker, United great Gary Neville said: “This is a Manchester United penalty, this is not tombola.”
Solskjaer later confirmed Rashford and Pogba were the two designated penalty takers and said does not feel he needs to address spot-kicks. “Not at all,” he said.
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“The two of them are confident and good penalty takers and I’ve been in that situation myself, gone up and missed a penalty for Norway. “When there’s two names there, it’s the one who’s the most confident and Paul has scored so many before, so absolutely no problem.
“It doesn’t have to be (one taker), no. “Because sometimes in a game you do grow in confidence. Sometimes ‘I don’t want to take it today because I had a bad day’. “Absolutely no problem with players walking up and saying, ‘this is mine’.”
Solskjaer was also asked about the incident after the game by Sky Sports, with Solskjaer adamant that the duo were allowed to debate between them over whom should take the kick. “[Pogba took it] because the two of them are the designated penalty shooters, and it’s up to them, there and then, who feels that it is theirs,” Solskjaer said.
“Sometimes, players just feel that they’re confident enough to score. Paul’s scored so many penalties for us, and today Patricio made a good save. “There is a system, you can see the slides on the PowerPoint. That doesn’t change after tonight, the two of them have been very confident before and last week, Marcus scored a goal.
“I’m sure [Rashford] would have loved to [score tonight], but Paul is also confident and plays with confidence and has the feeling of ‘I can do this’.”
Solskjaer, who also confirmed Alexis Sanchez could leave after the match, will hope United can return to winning ways when they host Crystal Palace on Saturday.
