Paul Pogba: My attitude wasn’t right against Brighton

And Mourinho revealed it was hard to lift his side at the break as United’s confidence was severely damaged by the hapless showings of Bailly and defensive partner Victor Lindelof. By then, a battling Brighton side had done enough to earn a second straight home victory over Jose Mourinho’s side.

Speaking after the game, Mourinho told the press: “We made big mistakes and were punished”.

Manchester United conceded three goals in a 20-minute span in the first half in a 3-2 loss to Brighton in the English Premier League.

For the first time in almost two years, Mourinho’s men conceded more than twice with all three Brighton goals arriving before half-time through Glenn Murray, Shane Duffy and a Pascal Gross penalty.

Through the summer and during the first week of the new Premier League season he has painted a bleak picture of United’s prospects.

“I don’t think they will”. Every manager makes a mistake in selling a player that shouldn’t be sold, it comes back to bite them. “I couldn’t be happier and I have to say – I am not saying for me, I am saying for him – that it is totally untrue that we had a problem during the week”. We came here with an intention and then suddenly you are losing 2-0. It’s not good for me. “There are basic mistakes that makes nearly an impossible mission to win the match”.

“When I can not do that, don’t push me to the other side”.

“Don´t expect me to speak with you about it because you and your colleagues were really critical when in previous seasons I was too honest, too open analysing players performances”, added Mourinho.

“I don’t agree with José in terms of being disrespectful to them”.

“That is true, you can not buy class”.

“The goalkeeper is the best in the world, the midfield is strong with Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic and Fred and up front there is Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial, Alexis Sanchez, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata and a lot of good players”. Neither did Paul Pogba’s late penalty after Duffy had brought down substitute Marouane Fellaini in stoppage time.

“I will always try. It didn’t happen today”.

Questioning United’s desire, Pogba said Brighton had wanted the points more.

“We gave the game to the opposition”, he said.

Pogba tried a different approach, hitting a fine shot from distance that produced an equally good response from keeper Mat Ryan, who dived to push it away one-handed.

Victor Lindelöf has been widely considered not good enough since moving to Old Trafford, with Eric Bailly the only semblance of success without a partner next to him to complement his style of play. Gross got up to beat De Gea from the spot and the Brighton players trooped off at halftime with the fans singing “we want four”.