By now it is a familiar feeling. The seconds ticking. The momentum building. The net, eventually, billowing.
Since Erik ten Hag’s appointment, no top-flight side has lost more games (six) after the 90th minute than Manchester United. Before the 2022-23 campaign, United had only lost a Premier League game that late twice. Twice.
It is Fergie time but in a bizarro world. A strange inversion of the era when, as Steve McClaren used to say, United did not lose games, they just ran out of time. By contrast, over the last two-and-a-bit seasons it has often felt like Ten Hag’s side are hanging on to hear the final whistle.
That was the creeping sense at the Amex Stadium as Simon Adingra checked back onto his right foot, deceiving both Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui, to cross for the unmarked Joao Pedro.
If not Brighton’s match-winner, the equally unmarked Julio Enciso could have applied the finish. Georginio Rutter was in just as much space at the far post but, given his two team-mates had totally escaped the attentions of Matthijs de Ligt and Scott McTominay, he did not feel it necessary to make a run.
And so add this 2-1 defeat to the list of games lost after 90 minutes, following those at the Emirates, Stamford Bridge and to Fulham at home last season, plus at the Emirates and the Amex during Ten Hag’s first term.
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“We didn’t stop the cross. There were three players — right footed, send him down the line wide instead of letting him come and allow the cross,” the United manager said afterwards.
“We have to talk about this: how we act in the situation as a team. There was more than one mistake on that occasion and that had a big impact on the score.”
Notice no names were mentioned there. Ten Hag shared responsibility for both Brighton’s goals on a collective basis rather than singling out any one player, even though Harry Maguire had also come under the microscope for failing to stop Joao Pedro’s cross in the build-up to the first Brighton goal.
“I think we are always looking for individuals who we have to blame,” the United manager said. “Both goals are very soft goals. As a team, we should be doing better. That’s for sure.”
But in a less-public setting, he might reflect that this defeat was not the failure of a system, but of isolated mistakes in key moments which let down a generally decent performance.
Much of the energy and intensity out of possession that was seen in the opening weekend’s win against Fulham was on display again, particularly until Mason Mount was replaced at half-time as a precaution. Amad’s equaliser was a testament to why Ten Hag has now started the 22-year-old in five consecutive league matches.
Amad celebrates scoring United’s equaliser (Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images)
And then, if not for one of the more bizarre and unfortunate disallowed goals in recent memory, when Alejandro Garnacho’s shot hit the offside Joshua Zirkzee before crossing the line, United would likely have escaped with at least a point against opponents who are rapidly approaching the status of ‘bogey team’. This was Brighton’s seventh win in 15 Premier League games against United.
It is worth taking a step back, drawing breath and not defining the entire display by two moments of passive defending — no matter how critical they ultimately were. And if the concession of yet another late goal is a familiar issue, then there is mitigation in the fact that United’s defenders for Brighton’s winner were not fully familiar with each other.
Of the nine United players in the penalty area as Adingra played his cross, three were new signings, two joined just last week and four had not started the game. The routines themselves were being orchestrated by a set-piece coach in Andreas Georgson who has an excellent reputation yet only arrived less than a month ago.
United conceded more shots from dead-ball situations than any other Premier League side last season. No team gave up better chances from set plays either, hence the appointment of a specialist on staff. If there is still something of a hangover from that, then that should hardly be surprising.
Joao Pedro’s winner came during a sustained spell of Brighton pressure too, and at the end of a rather chaotic second half, reminiscent of United at their frenetic best and worst last season. But as against Fulham, there were earlier periods when Ten Hag’s side were on top and relatively comfortable, pinning their opponents back in their own half.
When teams repeatedly collapse and concede late goals, there is a temptation to accuse them of a weak mentality or a psychological brittleness and that charge has certainly been levelled at Ten Hag’s players in the past. But, in the context of this game, it is also a simplistic explanation that ignores the upheaval of the summer and the underlying issues that United are seeking to address.
There was enough evidence here and on the opening weekend against Fulham that efforts are being made at change, and that there is some small progress. Marginal gains, you might say.
But as became abundantly clear when Joao Pedro pulled away in celebration having inflicted the first league defeat of Ten Hag’s third season in charge, United’s issues are not ones that will be fixed quickly.
(Top photo: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
