The visitors dominated throughout Ten Hag’s first Premier League game, winning behind two Pascal Gross goals in the space of nine first-half minutes, while United pulled a goal behind through an Alexis McAllister own goal in the second half . “It’s a hell of a job [before us] – We have to work very hard, analyze and then move on,” he said. “Today was a good start and after that we dropped a level of confidence and made mistakes which the opposition punished. But it was a good opponent, us [tried to] you work well together, but when you make mistakes you are punished for it.” After United had impressed in pre-season, the Dutchman was asked if he was surprised his players had lost faith in the first league game of the season. “I knew it could happen, but I think we should have done better – that’s for sure,” the coach said. “But I know that too [improvement] it won’t come overnight. At times we played better in pre-season. Today we had a very bad period in the first half and we have to learn from it.” He admitted he felt in pre-season that the squad’s confidence was fragile due to last season’s terrible campaign. “I think so. It’s also normal. I didn’t expect that we are already a team that has spent a lot of time together,” he said. “And I think that was the difference with our opponent: they were together for a long time with a certain plan and coach and no. But it was still unnecessary to lose this game.” Cristiano Ronaldo was not fit enough to start, Erik ten Hag said Photo: Peter Powell/EPA Ten Haag was asked why his team did not press as they would have liked. “Brighton are a team that usually like to play from the back. They didn’t do that today, they played long balls. Then it’s to win the second ball and in those situations we didn’t always do what we planned before the game and we have to learn from those lessons.” In the absence of Anthony Martial, the Ten Hag used a false No. 9 in Christian Eriksen, leaving Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench and cited a lack of fitness as the reason. “Ronaldo is now maybe 10 days in training and that’s too little for 90 minutes, that’s why we didn’t start him,” he said. At centre-back there was a Premier League debut for new signing Lisandro Martínez alongside Harry Maguire and the England international admitted it would take time to settle. “Me and Litsa didn’t play together much and we weren’t on the same page sometimes,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll get better and keep a clean sheet.” While Ten Haag followed Louis van Gaal as only the second of the eight managers who succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson to miss an opener, it was Brighton’s first win at Old Trafford in 14 visits. “I have a fantastic group of players who have ambition. They give it their all every day,” said their manager, Graham Potter. Danny Welbeck impressed up front for Brighton despite being a doubt for the game with a stomach problem. But Potter said there was no way he would be out of the game at one of his former clubs. “No, he would have stuck the toilet on his back to play, it would have slowed him down though,” he said. “He was amazing.”
