Chris Wilder says Sheffield United 'needed that' despite 3-2 defeat to Manchester United

PRIDE: Chris Wilder shakes hands with his former on-loan goalkeeper Dean Henderson at full-time

For half an hour the Blades were brilliant, and deservedly led through David McGoldrick.

But they conceded three goals that were brilliant from a Manchester United point of view, poor from a Sheffield United perspective – two very direct, the third a flowing move.

A late second for McGoldrick, at a corner, kept the visitors honest until the end but they held out for a 3-2 win which kept the Blades nine points from safety after Burnley's 0-0 draw at Aston Villa.

Wilder, though, was pleased with the reaction to Sunday's dismal 3-0 defeat at Southamtpton.

“We needed something like that.,” he said. “We'd have loved to have got a result out of it.

“The way we set up we weren't sitting off and being passive. You can be passive or over-aggressive but I thought we got the balance right. We tried to play when we had an opportunity to play.

“But I have to realise the quality we're up against. There's some brilliant players especially at the top of the pitch our players are up against.

“They're absolutely oozing quality all over the park but you have to be competitive and I thought we did that.”

A crucial moment came after 10 minutes, when Sander Berge injured his hamstring. He was replaced by Phil Jagielka, who was himself substituted after struggling to deal with the pace of two-goal scorer Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, who scored his first goal this season.

Asked if the decision to introduce Jagielka's experience, or to get Chris Basham into midfield, Wilder replied: “A bit of both. It's key when you're playing those teams. We didn't make a tackle in that area last week and we needed to.

“Ethan (Ampadu), Sander and John (Fleck) were mobile, energetic and mobile, they were dropping on second balls.

“We had a couple of options but I wanted three forwards on the bench. You have to make those decisions and maybe I made the wrong one in terms of that but that's how it goes.

“The goals not great from our point of view even though it was a brilliant run from Rashford and a fabulous finish (for the first), a world-class ball from (Paul) Pogba and another really good finish (by Martial). The third one they counter-attacked at incredible pace and they've got the ability to pick you off with one ball.”

Of Berge's injury he said: “It's not normally good. He's a powerful boy so when anyone comes off with a hamstring, the turnaround to Sunday is going to be very, very difficult, I should imagine.”

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you'll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click HERE to subscribe.