Much has changed for Manchester United, including its manager. But Sunday’s loss to visiting Brighton, which had never won at Old Trafford, shows that last season’s struggles remain.
United fell, 2-1, in Erik ten Hag’s first English Premier League match, with defense still an issue and the offense beyond the help of Cristiano Ronaldo, who entered in the second half.
Ten Hag had chosen to leave Ronaldo, who reportedly is eager to transfer to a team that has qualified for the Champions League, out of the starting lineup after he played only 45 minutes during preseason matches. Ronaldo had fueled questions about his thinking after he and a group of players left Old Trafford without permission before a friendly last Sunday against Spain’s Rayo Vallecano had ended.
Ten Hag called that “unacceptable for everyone,” then said Friday it was unfair to criticize Ronaldo above the others.
“There were many players who left, but the spotlight is on Cristiano and that is not right,” ten Hag said Friday (via the Associated Press). “So I think then do your research and make out many players left; that was what was said. … He was part of it. Again, there were a lot of players.”
Ronaldo played for United from 2003 to 2009 and returned to the team last year, but the season was a disappointing one as United finished sixth in the Premier League, 35 points behind champion Manchester City.
During Sunday’s opener, Manchester United fought back in the second half after Brighton took a 2-0 lead on first-half goals by Pascal Gross and the home team was booed as it left the pitch. United threatened in the second half, cutting the deficit when Alexis Mac Allister scored on an own goal.
There was unrest even before the match: Supporters protested the Glazer family, which was voted the worst owner in the Premier League in the spring. Avram Glazer, the team’s co-chairman, was present for the opener, and fans sang and chanted for his family to sell the team.
With the loss, ten Hag became the first manager of the club to lose his first Premier League game since Louis van Gaal, who lost to Swansea in 2014.
“We went into the game positive, we had a good preseason, and it was the worst possible start to be 2-0 down at halftime at Old Trafford. Not good enough. We got a goal back, but we huffed and puffed a bit, and it’s a bad start for us,” defender Harry Maguire said (via ESPN).
“We started the game pretty well and on the front foot and as a team we had control of the game. Then we conceded the first goal and that knocked us badly. We stopped playing from then. We need to look at not letting that first goal set us back as much as it did. But we have to be better on the ball; we gave them encouragement to come forward and attack us. It was a nightmare start to be 2-0 down at halftime.”
It’s a rocky start for ten Hag, who won 158 games over four-plus seasons with Dutch dynamo Ajax and twice led the team to the Champions League knockout round. Manchester United has not won the Premier League title since 2013 and hasn’t advanced past the Champions League quarterfinals since a runner-up finish in 2011.
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2022-08-07 20:40:00Z
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