Diogo Dalot believes Manchester United weren't aggressive enough in stopping Brighton's attacks, especially in the first half, of their opening weekend defeat.
Erik ten Hag's reign in charge couldn't have got off to a much worse start as they were beaten 2-1 by Brighton at Old Trafford. A miss-control from Dalot in the opening seconds set the tone for what would follow in a shakey and disjointed opening 45 minutes, a far cry from the improvement that's been seen throughout pre-season.
The Seagulls twice cut through the United back line in style to put themselves two up at the break, with playmaker Pascal Gross grabbing both goals. United got one back in the second half as a scrappy corner saw the ball bounce off Dalot and then Alexis Mac Allister before going in as an own goal.
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But it wasn't enough as United struggled to create any more clear-cut chances in the rest of the match as Brighton saw out the game perfectly. Dalot has explained where things went wrong. He told MUTV: "I think we could stop a little bit more the counterattacks.
"We let them play freely a couple of times and they play in behind. We could stop those counterattacks with a little bit more aggression. Like I said we did better in the second half, we kept more of the ball, we had a few more chances but not enough. We need to analyse what we did, and what we didn't do right and try to improve for the next game."
The full-back also thinks that the poor opening 45 minutes was decisive in the outcome: "Disappointing, I think everyone felt that today was a disappointing result we had a really bad first 45 minutes.
"Second half we got a little bit better but it's still not enough to win a game like this, we knew it was going to be tough. Disappointment but we need to keep our heads up and start working for the next game."
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