Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag admitted they were disappointed and annoyed at themselves after their 3-1 loss against Brighton while playing at home, Old Trafford, on Saturday. This is United’s third loss of the season and their second consecutive loss.
The home team was not up to the mark while defending and they had to pay the heavy price. Danny Welbeck, Pascal Groß, and Joao Pedro scored for the visitors to help them take a 3-0 lead. Hannibal Mejbri got one back for United but it was not enough to stage any sort of the comeback.
But despite the loss, Erik Ten Hag admitted his team is not in any kind of a crisis and is optimistic that they will bounce back.
“We have to be very disappointed and annoyed at ourselves,” he said. “We will turn this around. But there is a demand on us to win games.
“Definitely that is something that bothers me [form] but also I have to see the way we play [which was good] but it’s about character. Now we have to see how strong we are and how the team sticks together.”
Meanwhile, Rasmus Højlund, making his debut for Manchester United, was substituted by the Dutchman at the one-hour mark, and in his place, Anthony Martial was brought on. The decision received a booing from Old Trafford’s crowd.
Ten Hag said: “It was positive [for him] – you see the fans in the first moment in Old Trafford, the reception for him was great, he performed very well. It’s good they give this signal, it will give Rasmus belief. But everyone knows he came in with a small issue.
“If he gets injured because he is not capable of playing 90 minutes then we are much farther away than where we want to go.”
Manchester United will now kick off their Champions League campaign as they take on Bayern Munich on Wednesday.