Manchester United centre-back Chris Smalling has admitted that his side need to improve their defence as they look to bounce back from an underwhelming start to their season.

Jose Mourinho's side claimed their first clean sheet of the new campaign at the weekend with a 2-0 win at Burnley, having previously conceded seven times in their opening three games.

"Last season we picked up a lot of clean sheets and this year we've conceded early goals," Smalling told MUTV.

"We need to get back what we've done in the last few seasons when we've conceded very few goals, like on Sunday.

"It was down to us players to stand up tall and get a result, and we're very happy with the win.

"With us not having a game in the week, we'd been able to work on a lot of patterns of play and you could see them coming out and finishing with the goals, so we were happy with that."

Next up for United after the international break is a trip to high-flying Watford.