Five things we learned from Man United’s defeat against Brighton

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Manchester United lost 2-1 against Brighton & Hove Albion with Joao Pedro scoring the decisive goal late on.

Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United began the season with a 1-0 victory over Fulham at Old Trafford with Joshua Zirkzee netting the decisive goal.

United did well in the first half with Amad Diallo missing a guilt-edged chance to fire the Red Devils ahead. Danny Welbeck scored a tap-in in the first half for his 100th club goal of his career.

Amad equalised during the second half with the Ivorian excelling. Brighton netted late on with a Joao Pedro header with minutes left on the clock. Here are five things we learned from United’s defeat against Brighton.

Man United’s attacking struggles

United decided to line up without a striker for the game against Brighton but the Red Devils struggled to create chances against Fabian Hurzeler’s side.

Amad had a big first-half chance after a wonderful cross from Diogo Dalot on the left and the Ivorian should have done better with that opportunity.

Apart from that chance, the Red Devils failed to create many chances with Marcus Rashford having the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside.

Marcus Rashford struggles to perform

With three games under his belt, Rashford has struggled to explode into the new season with the Englishman struggling to impress.

Rashford was caught out for being offside multiple times with the Englishman struggling to stamp his authority on the game with Amad impressing on the other side.

Rashford had a poor campaign last season and the Englishman must improve but it has been a tricky start so far for the Red Devils.

Amad Diallo impresses against Brighton

Amad Diallo has become the first-choice option for the Red Devils on the right-hand side for United and he impressed again against the Seagulls.

The Ivorian missed a sitter in the first half and Brighton scored minutes later but he took his equalising goal brilliantly well.

He cut inside brilliantly onto his strong foot and rifled it into the net to fire the Red Devils level and they were in the ascendancy. In general play, Amad was superb for United and provided the key attacking threat, particularly in the second half.

United unlucky to not win game

Just a couple of minutes after Amad fired United level, the Red Devils thought they had struck again with Alejandro Garnacho scoring a tap-in after a Bruno Fernandes cutback.

Garnacho wheeled away in celebration but the offside flag was up. Zirkzee had poked the ball in on the line from an offside position so the goal did not count which was a moment of ridiculous luck for Brighton.

It wasn’t to be for the Red Devils due to a rather bizarre moment.

Erik ten Hag’s strange substitutions

With just 12 minutes remaining on the clock, Erik ten Hag made the decision to replace Bruno Fernandes in midfield with Scott McTominay coming on.

The Scotsman could well have made his final appearance for the Red Devils with Napoli keen on McTominay.

It certainly seemed like a strange call to replace Fernandes and the United captain did not look happy with that call whatsoever.