Modern players no more powerful than managers – Solskjaer

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is of the opinion that the players are no more powerful than before, which contradicts the claims of his predecessor Jose Mourinho on Thursday.

Speaking publicly for the first time since his dismissal at Old Trafford in December, Mourinho told beIN Sports that the balance of power has recently changed in football clubs.

"Sir Alex Ferguson used to say the day a player is more important than a club, good bye," said Mourinho. "No more now, the manager should be there to coach the players, not to keep discipline at all costs.

"It takes a structure to protect the manager and keep everything in place, so that players do not get into a situation where they feel more powerful than before … All I've done is good with the players is no longer relevant. The news in modern football is when you have problems. "

But Solskjaer believes that the natural order remains, as long as the values ​​of the team are considered sacrosanct.

"I would not say more powerful, but it's different because, thanks to social media and global society, young players grow up over what I did; I look really old now, but it's such a different time and everything is now just on Twitter, on Facebook or anything else, "said Solskjaer at a press conference at the day before the Premier League match against Brighton on Saturday.

"As long as it's not malicious, it's just the reality in which we live. But they must always have the values ​​of a team, they want to improve because I have to say that nobody deserves to be in a better team than they would give to the team, if You see what I mean.

"If they want to help the team, they deserve to be here, if they do not want to help the team, they do not deserve to be here." So these values, beliefs and principles do not change. "

Meanwhile, Solskjaer has warned that personalities like Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez should get used to being part of a rotating front as the Norwegian prepares to have six star strikers to stand just three positions and Anthony Martial Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard currently favoring starting points.

"Lukaku is definitely part of the group, with his personality around him. Nobody scored as many goals as he did in training so I have the three who played the most, but then you have Rom, you have Juan [Mata]you have Alexis, so I have one before six with which I can turn. And Rom will definitely play games.

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"I was one of the four forwards when we were playing two, and now we have six forwards and we play with three most of the time, so it will be nice to be able to rotate and there is plenty of play time and of play

"You have to take risks when you have them and be fair." Rom has already scored three points, but Marcus has scored four and Paul Pogba has scored four since I came, so it's up to the strikers to touch them. "

United will seek to extend its six-game winning streak under Solskjaer's command during a visit to Brighton on Saturday afternoon, with a kickoff given by 15:00 GMT.