Ole Gunnar Solskjaer felt Chris Smalling and Phil Jones were largely responsible for Manchester United's unconvincing win over Watford.
United returned to winning ways with a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford but struggled for large periods and visitors Watford ended the game with more possession and tallied more shots. A number of United players endured woeful individual displays in their first game since the 2-1 FA Cup quarter-final loss at Wolves two weeks ago yet United managed to hold on and return to fourth in the Premier League table.
When it was suggested Solskjaer was pleased with the result but not the performance, the Norwegian replied: "Well summarised. First 20 minutes we started so slow and sloppy and you could see we've had players out with injury. 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.
"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. But at 2-0 we were in control until then they scored and then anything can happen, but three points is all you can get."
Solskjaer felt Watford deserved to go 1-0 up but Marcus Rashford gave United the lead via a superb curling pass from Luke Shaw in the 25th minute. The England duo combined similarly for a goal in the Nations League reverse by Spain back in September and Solskjaer lauded both players' contributions against Watford.
"I thought Rashy was fantastic," Solskjaer added. "He gave us the energy the others lacked today and the two centre-backs and probably Luke Shaw were excellent as well."
When it was suggested Shaw did not have that attacking verve in his locker, Solskjaer said: "What do you mean didn't expect? He's got so much in his locker. I can't just wait to see more of this. He's exceptional going forward, and his sharpness in defending, he was top, top class today until he got cramp.
"He struggled a little bit over the international break, couldn't go there [to England], I think it would have been great for him to go there, disappointed he couldn't but we put them out there."
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