Ole Gunnar Solskjaer identified four Manchester United players that were key in the Red Devils’ unconvincing win over Watford .
United were on the back foot for much of the 90 minutes but got the three points which takes them back into the top four ahead of Arsenal’s match against Newcastle on Monday evening.
Strike duo Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford were on the scoresheet for Solskjaer’s men – and Rashford caught the eye of his gaffer.
But it was at the back where the Norwegian was most impressed as his defence rebuffed several Watford attacks.
Centre-half duo Chris Smalling and Phil Jones came in for praise, as did left-back Luke Shaw.
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First 20 minutes we started so slow and sloppy and you could see we’ve had players out with injury,” Solskjaer said. “And the international break, we’ve not been able to train them that much.
“So it’s one of them first games after international break you look forward to but know there might be a potential banana skin, because Watford are a good side.
“They didn’t have that many players away and I think they deserved to take the lead.
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“But after we scored after that counter-attacking goal – great goal by the way – the rest of the first half we played some great counter-attacking stuff, defended well, we had to because they were dominant.
“But Chris and Jonah especially were fantastic, kept us in it, second-half we started sloppier. At 2-0 we were in control until then they scored and then anything can happen, but three points is all you can get.
“I thought Rashy was fantastic. He gave us the energy the others lacked today and the two centre-backs and probably Luke Shaw were excellent as well.”
