Why Manchester United Played 1-1 With Southampton – Solskjaer

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hinged his team’s 1-1 draw with Southampton on poor finishing as the Red Devils failed to win after three straight matches.

Jannik Vestergaard’s powerful header gave 10-man Southampton a point after Daniel James had put Solskjaer’s charges in front at St Mary’s.

James silenced the home fans with his third Premier League goal in four appearances. He scored after only 10 minutes.

But the hosts fought back in the second half as Vestergaard equalised just before the hour.

With this result, United have five points from four matches – after recording only one win from four league games – while the team managed by Ralph Hasenhuttl are one point adrift of their visitors.

“We need some scrappy goals as well. We should have won today – we had the game where we wanted it [but] we were careless in our finishing and our last pass,” Solskjaer told BBC.

“We built pressure, we got round them, created good openings but the clinical edge wasn’t there. We should have won, again.

“Daniel James is fantastic – he has a great attitude, he wants to learn, he is hungry. He is at the start of his career but with his habits he will have a good one. We want to help him become the finished article.”

As for Hasenhuttl, he said: “We showed good mentality today after the red card. It was not easy. But with all the hard work, a man less and a third game in a week it is an unbelievable performance mentality from my team. I can only raise my hat to them. It was fantastic today.

“In the first half we showed a really intense performance. There was one action where we went 1-0 down. The players believe in what we are trying to do and showed they are always trying to be positive. That was the key to the success today.”

United host Nigeria’s Wilfred Ndidi’s Leicester City on Saturday 14 September, while Southampton visit Sheffield United.