Man Utd set themselves apart thanks to under the radar summer addition

United have shown a marked improvement in several areas already this season but are ahead of the majority of their Premier League rivals following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s key acquisition

Manchester United had their greatest transfer window in recent memory with three big-name marquee signings coming through the door at Old Trafford.

The club finally ended their long-running pursuit of Jadon Sancho to land the winger for £73million, before adding World Cup winner Raphael Varane to their squad soon after.

Cristiano Ronaldo then completed his shock return and has already made an immediate impact back in Manchester.

Yet it is one of United’s other additions who has made a huge contribution but gone largely under the radar.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has slowly been moulding his own backroom team during his tenure, and made another appointment over the off-season in set-piece coach Eric Ramsay.

And the results are already evident.

So far this season, United are just one of three Premier League clubs yet to concede from a set-piece – a direct impact of Ramsay’s methods.

Only Manchester City and Brentford are the other two sides not to concede from a corner, free-kick or penalty in the five opening matches.

Solskjaer persuaded Ramsay to leave his role as Chelsea under-23s assistant coach and join his team at Carrington.

Speaking in July, Solskjaer said: “We’ve been fortunate enough to convince Eric Ramsay to come and join the best club in the world and in the country.

“He’s a very highly rated coach who is going to be working with individuals and in charge of set-plays as well.

“We’re excited. He’s young, fresh and with new ideas, an innovative coach we know from before.”

United fans could already spot Ramsay’s influence in pre-season after scoring three times from set pieces in a 4-0 win over Everton.

They are yet to follow that up with a goal from set pieces in competitive fixtures this campaign, but with Ronaldo and Varane adding to their aerial prowess, you sense one might not be too far away.

Despite United’s progress in defending set pieces, boss Solskjaer is still insistent his team have work to do in defending as a whole, after their late let-off against West Ham on Sunday.

United came from behind to take the lead late on at the London Stadium but almost threw away two points when the Hammers were given a chance to level from the penalty spot in injury time.

Luke Shaw was adjudged to have handballed after West Ham got in easily down the right flank, but Mark Noble’s miss ensured United still emerged victorious.

West Ham’s earlier goal had been aided by United’s relaxed approach to defending, something Solskjaer is keen to address.

“We have to work better defensively, no doubt,” Solskjaer said. “In the first half, we were too easy to play through.

“We will work on it because there is no respite when you play football. I’ve spoken about how you can’t take rests when you defend.

“We dropped into a back six [for the goal] and there were too many spaces,” he added. “We were too late to charge the ball. We’ve already sorted that and spoke about that at half-time.”