Solskjaer bars Man Utd squad from practising on Carrington’s perfect Astroturf as its nothing like AZ Alkmaar’s dodgy plastic pitch
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER refused to let his Manchester United squad practice on their perfect training ground Astroturf ahead of playing on tonight’s dodgy plastic pitch.
The United team were due to train on their state-of-the-art 4g facilities yesterday morning before flying out to face AZ Alkmaar.
The Red Devils boss is furious with the Dutch side’s awful pitch, with concerns it could cause one of his stats injury.
He decided against letting his players practice on Carrington’s Astro over fears it would be nothing like the one in Holland.
Solskjaer led his men in a session late last night, where they tried to get used to the uneven bounce of the pitch in Den Haag.
An Old Trafford source said: “The side were due to training on their Astro on Wednesday but decided against it.
“They stuck to the grass because Ole and the coaches are concerned about what state the actual plastic pitch is in Holland.
“The club have a state-of-the-art 4G which is about as close to the real thing as you can get.
“They didn’t want to get used to one particular bounce when they have had reports back about how hard the other pitch is.”
Solskjaer was left stunned with the quality of the ADO Stadium’s pitch in October ahead of the Europa League clash.
The Norwegian boss said: “I’m surprised they’ve chosen to play on this pitch.
“I’m used to Astroturf pitches in Norway but this is not the best I’ve seen. It’s one of the worst ones I’ve seen for a long while.
“We’ve all got standards back home in Norway and are all modern. It seems like it’s been used a lot.
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“I’m surprised that in this climate you have to use Astroturf.
“It’s OK when you live in the North Pole like we more or less do in Norway and can’t play in March, November or December but here I’m surprised.
“If I was running a club down here I wouldn’t have an Astroturf pitch.”