Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admits Manchester United home form not good enough: 'We need to look at the way we prepare'

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is ready to rethink the way Manchester United prepare for home matches after admitting his side must improve their form at Old Trafford.

United face Chelsea at Old Trafford on Saturday in their first home outing since the 6-1 humiliation at the hands of Tottenham just under three weeks ago.

It was their second successive home defeat after the opening-day loss to Crystal Palace and means United have won just half of their 12 matches at Old Trafford since mid-January, a stark contrast to their outstanding away form.

Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League was United’s 15th win in 18 away matches since a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in January, with the other three games ending in draws.

United’s only ‘away’ defeats in that time were at neutral venues to Chelsea, in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, and Sevilla, in their Europa League semi-final in Germany.

“I disagree with [saying we have won] 10 in a row [away from home] because we lost to Chelsea and Sevilla - for me they are two away games - but they are [at] neutral [venues], okay,” Solskjaer said.

“We need to address the home form, we need to look at the way we prepare, that’s maybe something I’ve got to deal with. The whole lockdown period has made us do things differently at home so we might have to do it in a different way.”

Solskjaer says United must live with their mauling by Spurs but is demanding a reaction against Chelsea.

“I don’t think anything will erase that memory, it’ll always be in the history books and we have always got to live with having that result and that performance,” he said.

“You can look back at that performance and see what the different reasons were behind the result, but we have got to focus on moving forward.

“It’s happened so many times at this club that you have results that come out of the blue, or setbacks that you have to bounce back from, and so far we have bounced back well from it, but now it’s about consistency.”

Solskjaer said he is hoping to have Harry Maguire and Edinson Cavani available, after the pair missed the PSG game, and Marcus Rashford, who took a knock in the match. Uruguay striker Cavani has yet to feature since his deadline day move, having also been forced to quarantine for a fortnight following his free transfer.

“I hope and expect all three to be available for selection, we’ve got a training session this morning but they’ve all got a chance, all of them,” Solskjaer said.

“There are two different reasons [with Cavani]. Edinson wants to tick all the boxes that he’s gone through in his programme and be ready to make an impact. His last preparation was going to be today and I will have a discussion with him, and yesterday it seems positive with Marcus and Harry.”

Meanwhile, Solskjaer has defended Mason Greenwood’s professionalism. The United and England striker was omitted from United’s squad for the wins against Newcastle and PSG with what Solskjaer described as a “niggle”. Greenwood is understood to have been spoken to about his discipline and timekeeping but Solskjaer denied that the 19 year-old had an issue with his timekeeping.

Greenwood was left out of the England squad after being sent home last month for breaching Covid-19 protocols when he and Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden invited two women back to the England team hotel in Reykjavik the day after making their senior international debuts in a 1-0 win over Iceland.

Asked if Greenwood was in danger of making a target for himself, Solskjaer said: “You do when you play well and I'm not concerned at all with Mason making a target of himself, because he came in, played fantastic, played against Tottenham in the first league game, was brilliant, and kicked on.

“Yeah he made a mistake with England and suddenly the whole English press go after him and that’s something we have got to look after.

“He’s a fantastic boy to work with. I have to disappoint you, he's never ever late for training, he's never a problem on the training ground. I’ve seen the stories, I've seen some ex-United players talking about him and they don't know what they're talking about.

“We have got photographers outside the training ground every day, so they can see every day he’s on time.

“He's got a good family behind him, he has had a good background in the academy and he's a good trainer. He trains really well and I cannot believe all these stories about him not being professional. That's something that we have to deal with with many players, many other players at United have had that.”