Manchester United fans make their feelings known to manager and player in Brighton defeat

Defeat and boos. The clocks do not go back for another month and Manchester United have already reached crisis point. The cracked badge will appear on the back page of newspapers in the coming days.

The boos were in response to the removal of full debutant Rasmus Hojlund, denied a goal by the Video Assistant Referee in the first half. The identity of his replacement, the anodyne Anthony Martial, did little to lift the mood.

Hojlund has not played 90 minutes since his penultimate appearance for Atalanta in May and he has had a stress fracture of the back to recover from. That context was inconsequential to United matchgoers starting at the scoreboard that read 'United 0-2 Brighton' with 64 minutes on the clock. It switched to 3-0 seven minutes later.

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Martial, three-and-a-half hours early for training at Carrington on Thursday in a rare display of eagerness, was ordered to quicken his preparation to come on by Erik ten Hag. Turning to Martial and taking Hojlund off in an hour of need did not augur well with startled supporters.

"Can we play you every week?" asked the travelling Brighton supporters. Hannibal Mejbri was affronted enough by that to larrup in his first United goal on a rare but deserved outing. It rallied those who had remained after Joao Pedro's strike sparked a mass exodus.

Ten Hag strolled straight onto the pitch at full-time and shook hands with the officials. When he turned and approached the Stretford End, it was half empty. This was Ten Hag's worst day on home territory in Manchester. This is the first time United have lost three out of their first five Premier League games.

His unbeaten