Erik ten Hag expressed frustration over his team’s “avoidable” defensive mistakes and lack of finishing quality against Brighton, urging them to “work better as a unit.”
Manchester United suffered a last-minute blow when Joao Pedro’s header in injury time secured a 2-1 win for Fabian Hurzeler’s team, who maintained their flawless start to the league.
Former United player Danny Welbeck put Brighton ahead with a close-range finish midway through the first half of Saturday’s game. United equalized around the 60-minute mark with Amad’s deflected shot.
United believed they had snatched victory when substitute Alejandro Garnacho scored, but VAR disallowed the goal for offside due to Joshua Zirkzee’s knee being over the goal line.
This misfortune was compounded when Pedro headed in Simon Adingra’s cross, unmarked….
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Ten Hag criticized the poor defending that allowed both goals. “It’s very disappointing, especially when over long parts of the game you have control,” Ten Hag said after the match.
“We are controlling the game so well in possession and we were doing so well and we concede two unnecessary goals to concede, very avoidable.
He added: “We concede two soft goals when we should act better as a team.”
Asked what we wanted to see better from his team in those moments, Ten Hag said: “So many things in that moment. We have to talk, we have to be alive in certain moments, what to do and everyone knows their job as a team in how we protect our goal.”
Ten Hag hailed his team for showing “resilience” to recover from going a goal down against the Seagulls, but he expressed discontent with the chances spurned in the first-half that saw his team trailing at the break.
“I don’t think before half-time, we created our chances,” he said. “We had good chances, so the best chance before half-time was from Amad, the cross off Diogo [Dalot], then Mason Mount had a very good chance.
“So before half-time we had three or four good opportunities and from there, two very good chances and we should be winning at half-time.”
He added: “I think there were very good parts in the game. We had a lot of control in possession, created good chances, showed resilience and we came back and then we scored a winning goal or we thought it was the winning goal but the ball was on the line. On the line, just before the line. It’s disappointing but I can take the positives.
“We have to take the positives. We have to learn, and you can’t drop points. It’s so unnecessary if you protect the goal like we do, but then we drop points. And top football is about details, so we have to do better in those situations.”
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