Manchester United came from behind to earn a point against Southampton, but it was not what the manager had hoped for at St. Mary's.
Follow Us
Manchester United were held to a 1-1 draw by a resilient Southampton side in the Premier League on Sunday. United came from behind to earn a point against Southampton, but it was not what manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had hoped for at St. Mary’s. Mason Greenwood drew the Reds level after Che Adams’ deflected first-half effort off Fred had put the hosts ahead. Later, Solskjaer reflected on a day of mixed emotions, with the Red Devils leaving the pitch with only a point. Despite being pleased to see his side take something from a losing position, the manager felt “it’s not what we wanted.” Its four points from two games for the Red Devils after winning their opening league match 5-1 against Leeds United last weekend.
“Overall, I think we created enough chances to win it and played some decent football at times; then again we could have lost it but for a very good save from David [De Gea],” said Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after the match. “It’s a point from a losing position but it’s not what we wanted. We weathered the storm in the first two or three minutes after some set-plays, then we played some good football ourselves, created chances from set-plays and when they scored that was more or less out of nowhere.”
Referring to the opening goal when the ball was won from Bruno Fernandes in the build-up play, Solskjaer said, “[It was a] Foul, 100 per cent. Football can go from one extreme to the other and he goes straight through Bruno’s hip so that’s a foul, but we should react better anyway, we should do better, just block the shot and make sure mistakes won’t cost us.”
Speaking about his half-time message, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer explained, “We needed to sharpen up, have more urgency, still keep believing in ourselves. We played some very good football until they scored, maybe for another five minutes. It’s sloppy, maybe because of tiredness we gave them a few chances, we could have lost it as I said. After we scored, the next five, six, seven minutes, I thought ‘yeah, this is good’. We created chances, they had a couple of blocks and we did have opportunities. I always believe in these players.”
The manager then spoke about his team selection, which saw Anthony Martial return to the Starting XI. Ole was particularly not happy with the way the team played towards the end of the match. “We wanted to get Anto [Martial] going, make it to have two forwards. Anto drifted to the left and Mason was coming inside from the right. Mason scores a very good goal. He didn’t have one of his best days, but he still contributes and when Jadon [Sancho] came on, I thought he looked really sharp for the first 10-15 minutes, but the whole team fell away a bit and the last 15 minutes we didn’t play particularly well,” he added.
“We’re still very early on [in the season] and we need to work to get them fit. We’ll be better off next week. It’s a point from a losing position, but still we want two more in every single game but now it’s about working on fitness, a couple of other issues we need to sort and then we should be ready for Wolverhampton.”
Speaking about seeing fans in the stadium, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said, “This is football, you have to handle the home fans or when you’re away, the opposition’s fans. I thought at times, we let the crowd get to the referee or get to us maybe so we’ll get used to proper football again.”
