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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says Manchester United have enough quality in the middle despite another porous defensive performance in Brighton.
United conceded two goals in their remarkable 3-2 victory at Amex Stadium which was secured with a 100-minute penalty awarded after the game had ended.
Brighton hit the wood five times in an unfortunate loss and United have now conceded five goals in their first two Premier League games when it took six games to send the same amount last season.
Victor Lindelof started again after widespread criticism of his performance against Crystal Palace and Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo are not being considered for the selection as they prepare for possible transfers. Phil Jones is still injured and Axel Tuanzebe is not fit yet.
“We have a lot of defenders here and I put in Eric (Bailly) to reinforce the defense, following the runs of (Leandro) Trossard and (Neal) Maupay,” Solskjaer said. “So for me, we have enough good centrals here at the moment.
“When he concedes opportunities and concedes goals, there are two different things that he can see: is it the team’s form or there are individual mistakes. For me, we are not in our best form, our form is not there, we are not sharp enough to stop crossings or follow the races.
“We are a little behind and they are structural errors than individual errors. I think Victor did well today.”
Despite the fortuitous form of their victory, United have recorded their first points of the new season ahead of next week’s visit to Tottenham. Brighton had a second half penalty overruled by video assistant referee, who then advised on-court referee Chris Kavanagh to consult the court monitor as Maupay had handled Harry Maguire’s injury time header.
Kavanagh had flown full time but had to restart the match for Bruno Fernandes to take the penalty after Solly March appeared to have scored a draw with his goal in the 95th minute. Solskjaer accepted that United were lucky to win.
“I don’t think we ever scored after the final whistle, but of course handball was before full time,” added Solskjaer. “It was probably the right thing to do [to check the handball]. For us it was something very important. We have talked about how we need later goals.
(Image: JOHN SIBLEY / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
“We were the team that lost the fewest games apart from Liverpool last season, but we drew too many and scoring two extra points after conceding at the end is a huge boost for us.
“We have to be honest enough to say they created the most opportunities. Maybe 50-50 possession, but they had a lot of shots, great opportunities and that’s not what we want. We need to improve a lot in the coming weeks.
“I don’t question the spirit and character of the guys at all, the spirit is there. Sharpness and fitness may not be, but it’s going to come. We have three or four weeks to catch up and the more games we play. , if we have more than 90 minutes, we will be more and more acute “.
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