Often supportive Manchester United fans were angered by the 3-1 defeat handed to United in Saturday’s Premier League clash with Brighton.
The fans directed their frustration at coach Erik ten Hag after his substitutions did not produced the desired results. Ten Hag had pulled out Hojlund for Anthony Martial, when they were already down from a first half goal by former United player Danny Welbeck who beat Andre Onana with a low shot.
Hojlund thought he had equalised for United later in the half but his goal was ruled out by VAR, who judged that the ball had narrowly gone out of play in the build-up.
The former Atalanta striker, who joined United in a £72m move from the Italian club earlier this summer, worked hard to find an equaliser in the second half but it was Brighton who would score next – Pascal Gross doubling the visitors’ advantage.
Things got worse for Ten Hag minutes later when Brighton went further ahead, Joao Pedro scoring for the visitors to compound the home side’s misery.
The result the third defeeat piles the pressure on Ten Hag ahead of United’s opening Champions League game of the season away at Bayern Munich on Wednesday, with United now 12th in the Premier League.
Speaking on the result midfielder, Christian Eriksen lamented: “It is a heavy one. We have to look at ourselves. We changed some things but we are disappointed,” he told BBC
“In the first half we had a lot of moments, had good control. They had a lot of possession but not many chances. They then score with their first chance and the system they play they keep the ball a lot and we had to chase it down. But we still had chances to get back into the game.
“The small things,” Eriksen added when quizzed on what United must improve on. “We had the offside at Arsenal and today when we scored but it was out of play. The small things we are missing and a bit of luck to get over the line and get something out of the effort we put in.
“Any game at the start of the season, doesn’t matter who you play, is very important. We focus on our games and whoever we play we want to win. But we have lost three already and we have to change that.”
