Manchester United vs Burnley: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer learns valuable lessons as United salvage late draw

Tuesday’s late comeback will teach the United manager more about his players than the eight victories preceding it

The streak is over. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was expected to become the first Premier League manager to win his first seven games in charge of a new club but he will instead have to be content with merely equalling Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti’s records of six.

Will Solskjaer mind? Almost certainly not. He has dismissed every question about the historical significance of his excellent start as Manchester United’s caretaker manager already. He has not, at any point, seemed particularly bothered by breaking records.

Improving United’s performances has been his only priority and that is why Tuesday’s remarkable late comeback to draw against relegation-threatened Burnley will potentially teach him more about his players than the eight victories which preceded it.

Though the narrow 2-0 FA Cup win over Reading at the start of the month was poor, Tuesday easily saw United’s worst performance under Solskjaer to date and the Norwegian could have had no complaints had it ended in defeat.

United’s unease in possession when under pressure was worrying - Andreas Pereira was pick-pocketed in the build-up to Burnley’s first - but not quite as worrying as their inability to fashion much in the way of scoring opportunities.

United had peppered Burnley’s goal with 28 shots by the time all was said and done but Lindelof’s goal aside, only Marcus Rashford’s early chance when one-on-one with Tom Heaton could be described as clear-cut.

Solskjaer saw the problem as a lack of urgency. “The danger of winning might be that you think what we've done before gives us the right to start off on 90 per cent because we're winning one or 2-0, but we don't,” he said.

“You have to start properly in each game and today we didn't start off well enough to cause Burnley enough problems. We know they are well organised and happy if we cross the ball. We needed more tempo and more urgency in the play.”

There was plenty of urgency in United’s play once they went behind, though, and still not clear routes towards goal were carved out. It was hard not to conclude that Solskjaer’s selection played a part, with Jesse Lingard benched and Anthony Martial absent.

Without that pair alongside him in the front three, Rashford did not appear as sharp. It also meant he was stationed on the left, despite having impressed of late through the middle. Solskjaer had no regrets over this decision, nor regarding the surprise inclusion of Pereira.

Marcus Rashford struggled without the presence of Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial (AFP/Getty)

“No, it was the right decision to make,” he insisted. “We had a couple of niggles. Unfortunately [Pereira] was involved in the first goal but that's the whole team, we played our way into trouble.”

On playing Romelu Lukaku up top and Rashford wide, Solskjaer added: “Rom's done really well against Burnley before. He's scored, he's a handful and with Anthony injured we thought that was the best option with Rashy out there. Of course, he got a couple of chances but today was not his day.”

Yet United’s attack was predictable and not all too dissimilar from many afternoons and evenings at Old Trafford during Jose Mourinho’s first season, when United struggled to break down their opponents and drew on 10 separate occasions in the league alone.

Mourinho’s United started life back then without a clear attacking structure and, in two-and-a-half years, hardly ever came close to discovering one, only ever stumbling upon something to discard it soon after.

Solskjaer has already made more progress in that regard, combining Rashford, Martial and Lingard quite brilliantly in a fluid front three. Lukaku has been used sparingly but effectively, offering important cameos.

Tuesday, however, was a reminder that this is still fundamentally a Mourinho squad undergoing a re-education process. Every now and again, familiar issues will resurface. It has been a remarkable six weeks for Solskjaer but it will take much longer than that to fully fix United’s problems.