Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Laments 'Sloppy' Man Utd Despite Win Over Sheffield United

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has admitted he was surprised by his team’s ‘sloppy’ start in their 3-2 victory over win-less Sheffield United because the players had been shown specific videos of previous mistakes before the game and made the same ones.

United went 1-0 down to the Premier League’s bottom club inside five minutes when stand-in goalkeeper Dean Henderson, given a rare start against his former loan team, was caught in possession in the penalty area.

Dean Henderson was at fault for the first goal / PETER POWELL/Getty Images

Despite the mismatch, the visiting Red Devils were then on the back-foot for a sizeable chunk of the first half until Marcus Rashford brought them back level on 26 minutes.

A further strike from Rashford in the second half following an earlier go-ahead goal from Anthony Martial, the Frenchman’s overdue first in the league this season, made it 3-1. But a late consolation from the Blades' first scorer David McGoldrick at a corner made for a nervy final few minutes.

“We played some brilliant football between their first goal and their second goal - the end was a bit too uncomfortable for my liking,” Solskjaer is quoted as saying by BBC Sport.

“We never make it easy for ourselves. The start was sloppy and slow, and I'm surprised by this because we showed them videos and it happened again.”

Marcus Rashford & Anthony Martial both scored / Pool/Getty Images

Even though it was a slow start, a tense finish and ultimately a repeat pattern for United, the result still marked a sixth consecutive away win in the Premier League. Solskjaer’s team are unbeaten domestically since the start of November, are up to sixth place in the table and are only two points behind second place Tottenham – with a game in hand on everyone ahead of them

“We need to sort the home form. Obviously, it’s not like it is home and away in these conditions without fans and it seems like we’re going to be in this situation a little longer, but we should be more used to the Old Trafford pitch than these pitches so hopefully we’ll start,” Solskjaer said, via ManUtd.com.

“We treat every game as a cup final, we have to. We have to treat every single game this season as the last game we’re going to play for Man United. Just approach it like you do and don’t worry about the next game, we can’t.

“Sunday [against Leeds] is a big game, massive game. A game that all our supporters and players will really want us to win and let's hammer in for these boys what it means, because I don’t think any of them were born even when I played in these types of fixture.”

For more from Jamie Spencer, follow him on Twitter and Facebook!