Manchester United took their first step in the Premier League with a tough defeat against Brighton 2-1 at Old Trafford in front of their home crowd. A match that generated a lot of expectations due to different issues, among them the arrival of the new coach Erik Ten Hag and the situation of the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.
The first news before the match was that Ronaldo was not going to be part of the starting eleven and would take a place on the substitutes' bench. During the first half, in addition to showing what was happening on the pitch, the cameras also captured what was happening in the bench with the 37-year-old footballer. ‘CR7’ came on after 53 minutes and the team improved in attack but it was not enough to reverse the result. After the final whistle, the Dutch coach explained the reason for his decision.
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"Cristiano Ronaldo had ten days of training with the team, too little for 90 minutes, that's why we didn't start him," said the former Ajax boss at the press conference after the defeat and added: "This takes time. We can't force him after a week of training, just over a week now."
"He has to get his fitness back and this game helped him to do that. The 35-40 minutes he played today, plus the week (of preparation) we will have now. Next week he's going to be better," considered Ten Hag, who at the same time acknowledged that with the entry of the Portuguese, "in the second half we improved in midfield, with Christian Eriksen further back and Ronaldo further up.”
Not the best of debuts for Ten Hag
Regarding the defeat, Ten Hag lamented: "We didn't believe in ourselves and we made some mistakes that the opponent punished us for. We made mistakes with the ball and organizational errors in defense. We have to take lessons and learn from them quickly. Brighton are a decent team, compliments, but I look at my team and we shouldn't give away two easy goals”.
