João Pedro snatches points for Brighton as Manchester United come unstuck

A (partial) new owner, new signings, a new mood, but for Manchester United it was a very familiar story. João Pedro got the winner in the fifth minute of added time and, while United will lament a farcical second-half offside that prevented them taking the lead, Brighton had looked the likelier to score for all but about 10 minutes of the second half. For United this was another performance that was probably better than equivalent games last season, but still far from good enough.

The winner came after a sustained spell of pressure, Simon Adingra eventually dinking a ball to the back post where three Brighton players were lined up waiting to apply the coup de grace. For all that United might have drawn quiet encouragement from the way they pressed Brighton, from their sense of shape and structure, they suffer a want of conviction, a lack of ruthlessness. And, fundamentally, there is a bewildering incapacity to do the simple things well. Where were the markers? Why was half the six-yard box vacant in the 95th minute?

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