Manchester United faced off with Graham Potter’s Brighton on Sunday, in what was Erik ten Hag’s first competitive match as Manchester United manager.
It was far from a fairytale start for the Dutchman, though, as Manchester United ended up losing the tie 2-1.
The Red Devils began the game well and had Brighton penned back in their own half for much of the opening 25 minutes. However, United made too many individual mistakes and eventually went 1-0 down after 30 minutes thanks to Pascal Gross being left unmarked at the back post.
Gross then added his second of the tie less than 10 minutes later, this time stabbing in a deflected effort after getting to the ball before Fred.
Manchester United improved in the second 45 following the arrival of Cristian Ronaldo and the removal of Fred, which allowed Christian Eriksen to slot into the deep-lying playmaker role.
But whilst United did get one back via an own goal, it was too little too late, and Ten Hag and co. slumped to a 2-1 loss on the opening weekend.
Following the game, Ten Hag was asked if Manchester United need more players, but suggested they could do better with the current crop of stars:
“We could do better with the players we had,” he said.
He added: “We made mistakes on the ball and organisation mistakes in defending. We have to take the lessons and learn quickly from it.”
Elsewhere, the United boss gave an injury update on Anthony Martial: “Difficult to say with his injury and we have to wait. We have a week (until the next game).”
Assessing Erik ten Hag’s first game as Manchester United manager
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