Harry Maguire: A nightmare start to be 2-0 down at half-time

Manchester United captain Harry Maguire speaking to Sky Sports about the game against Brighton (1:2):

"We went into the game positive, we had a good pre-season and it was the worst possible start to be 2-0 down at half-time at Old Trafford. Not good enough. We got a goal back but we huffed and puffed a bit and it’s a bad start for us.

“We started pretty the game well and on the front foot and as a team we had control of the game. Then we conceded the first goal and that knocked us badly. We stopped playing from then. We need to look at not letting that first goal set us back as much as it did. But we have to be better on the ball, we gave them encouragement to come forward and attack us. It was a nightmare start to be 2-0 down at half-time.

“We spoke about getting the next goal [at half-time]. I think in the second half you saw good parts to our game but overall we didn’t do enough. We had a lot of pressure and a lot of ball but we need to be a bit more creative and we need to improve on that

“It’s something we need to address or it’ll keep happening. The first goal felt like a big blow to all 11 of our players.

“Everyone knew the task. We had a bad season last season. We’ve got a new manager trying to put his philosophy on the team but when we don’t get it right we look far too open.”