Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has praised his players’ attitude after they came from behind to draw 2-2 with Burnley in the Premier League.
The Red Devils scored twice late on to earn a point a Old Trafford. Solskjaer said United will learn from the experience, and he also defended his team selection for the clash.
Per United’s official website, he said: The way we came back was fantastic. We are happy with a point and we could have got three by the end. We just ran out of time and we started too late, with the urgency that we needed. That is a learning curve.
“But now you have your answer—can they come back if they go one down, or two down, even? So I am very happy with the response.”
The Norwegian added that the comeback was “a testament to the character of everyone” and a reminder to “never give up. Never give up at this club.”
Solskjaer had brought Andreas Pereira into the starting lineup—just his fifth start of the campaign in all competitions—and also deployed Romelu Lukaku up front with Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata either side of him.
United’s interim manager stood by his decision, though, despite Pereira’s mistake leading to Ashley Barnes’ opener, per Goal’s Joe Wright:
“No, it was the right decision to make. We had a couple of niggles and unfortunately he [Pereira] was involved in the first goal, but that’s the whole team.
"We never give up at this club."
Ole's thoughts on #MUFC's late fightback… pic.twitter.com/iEQZ8pId92
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 29, 2019
“We played our way into trouble there. Instead of starting off with the forward pass, we ended up back to the ‘keeper, and it’s just another thing we have to learn from.”
Football writer Liam Canning and Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News