Pascal Gross: Brighton & Hove Albion predicted how Manchester United would play and adapted
Brighton & Hove Albion hero Pascal Gross has claimed that his side knew exactly how Manchester United would approach the first game of the new season at Old Trafford. All the Seagulls did was tweak their game plan to get the win over the Red Devils.
Erik ten Hag’s reign at United got off to a nightmare start. The Red Devils lost to Brighton in the Dutch manager’s opening competitive match in the Old Trafford dugout.
Speaking to Sky Sports (h/t Manchester Evening News), Gross revealed Graham Potter’s side already predicted how United would play. Brighton adjusted to what they thought Ten Hag’s side would do. In the end, it paid off for the Seagulls.
“You try to test all of the team, really. They were at home the first game of the season and we thought that they would want to push, want to put us under pressure.
“So you need to adapt a little bit to that and we played the game how it made sense on the day.”
Brighton opened the scoring as United’s defence was split open by a pass from Leandro Trossard. Danny Welbeck got in behind our backline and put it on a platter for Gross to score.
For the second goal, a few passes in the build-up were enough for Brighton to get a shot off on target. David de Gea got his hand to it, but the German was ready to pounce on the rebound to score his second of the match.
United don’t have the personnel
United played out from the back. It was evident from the first minute that the Seagulls would be keen to press high up the pitch. And they did precisely that. The backline and midfield were under pressure from Brighton players from the get-go.
The Red Devils made errors and gave the ball away on many occasions. De Gea struggled to play out from the back. Fred was deployed as the holding midfielder. The Brazilian didn’t have the best of games. Christian Eriksen started as a centre-forward.
Fans can clearly see that Ten Hag doesn’t have the personnel to play the way he wants. So now it’s up to the manager to either adapt or persist.
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On the one hand, United don’t have the quality of players needed to play the way Manchester City or Liverpool play. However, on the other hand, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp didn’t compromise on their ideals when things weren’t going their way.
The former Ajax manager needs to be given time to work with the players and make them adapt. He can’t throw the playbook out after the first few games like Ralf Rangnick. But Ten Hag does need to find a middle ground to ensure we get into the top four at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
