Erik ten Hag was “very disappointed” by Manchester United's 2-1 defeat at Brighton on Saturday and said his side need to be much more aggressive in both defence and attack.
Brighton's winner came in the 95th minute when João Pedro was left unmarked inside the area and headed past André Onana, giving manager Fabian Hürzeler two wins from two at the start of his tenure on the south coast.
United came back from 1-0 down following Danny Welbeck's 32nd-minute goal, before Amad scored a second-half equaliser. But in the end, they left Brighton with nothing after Pedro's late winner, leaving Ten Hag frustrated by several aspects of the goal.
“We have to talk about how to act in a situation like that,” Ten Hag said. “There was more than one mistake on that occasion and that has a big impact on the score.”
“[I was] I'm very disappointed. In the Community Shield we conceded a goal just before the end. We should be more clinical in those situations, read the game, take the point, [and] If you can't win, I thought we were close to winning the match, definitely don't lose the match.
“I've seen some positive moments and there were positive moments in the game, we should have had more control of the game, but there were positive moments. I've seen a lot of positives, but we need to be more clinical and aggressive in both areas.”
Ten Hag was also not willing to blame individuals for either goal.
“We always look for individuals to blame, but in both goals there were very easy goals and as a team we should have done better, that's for sure,” he said.
United should have scored a second goal in the 70th minute but Alejandro Garnacho's shot towards goal struck teammate Joshua Zirkzee on the line as the ball was about to go in. Zirkzee was deemed offside and the goal was ruled out.
“We can take this goal back and explain it in detail and what should happen,” Ten Hag said. “The most important thing is that we had an overload, we played really well, then it's about making the final pass, putting the players in the right positions, giving the right touch and doing everything we did well. It's [just] misfortune.”
Ten Hag also confirmed that Mason Mount's absence at half-time was due to injury. “It was forced, he… [said he had] a problem and I didn't want to take the risk with it. I don't know how much [of a] Concern right now. When we have a good sideboard, we can put Zirkzee in, so [you] Don't hesitate and take it out,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hürzeler is enjoying life at Brighton. This 2-1 win followed a 3-0 win over Everton on Matchday 1. One of their star players on Saturday was midfielder Billy Gilmour, who has been linked with a move to Napoli.
After the match, Hürzeler did not confirm whether Gilmour would leave the club.
“I'm very open with the players, sometimes I prefer not to talk about conversations. What I can say is that I'm not surprised by how he played today,” Hürzeler said. “I see his attitude and he was focused. It's not easy when someone talks about you and says he's leaving the club, so I'm very happy that he was mentally stable and that was special.”
Hürzeler said he is focusing on building on the club's recent success and, despite having two wins in two games, he wants the group to work on its consistency over the 90 minutes.
“There's still a lot of room for improvement, but in the end, the work ethic was impressive,” he said.
“I think my team deserved to win, but after we conceded the goal we lost control of the game a bit. After the equaliser, the game was too open. We have to be honest, we were lucky not to concede the second goal and that woke us up and we took control of the game again. The way we played in the last 15 minutes was incredible. The players had the attitude of never giving up and I could feel that from the touchline.”
