Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has explained that his Manchester United players lacked composure after Jack Grealish’s goal gave Aston Villa the lead in the 2-2 draw at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The Red Devils managed to turn the game around as Marcus Rashford forced a Tom Heaton own-goal and Victor Lindelof headed a second for the hosts, but Tyrone Mings smashed in a late equalizer to earn the visitors a point.
The result left Solskjaer’s team with just two wins from their last nine Premier League games and, while offering a reminder of the youthfulness of his team, the 46-year-old also pointed to a lack of composure during a disjointed first half.
While speaking to reporters the Norwegian explained that Grealish’s goal deflated the home side, “Any home game you’d want to win and you go into the game believing you’ll win but you have to play an opposition and the first half wasn’t good enough. Their first goal knocked us a little bit emotionally. We didn’t find our composure until we got the half-time talk.
However, Solskjaer further added some praise for the youngsters, “The boys have character; they’re young, there’s loads of energy, they played [in the] second half miles, miles better of course but it’s a game of two halves as everyone says. Poorly defended by us, we should have done better. But then again we have to learn from this. You say that after every goal you concede – there are little details that go wrong. We didn’t go out together as a team.”
United currently sit in ninth position on the Premier League table, having lost four and drawn six of their opening 14 matches this season, and Solskjaer must prepare his players to face Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham at home on Wednesday before the Manchester derby at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
