Manchester United rue bizarre offside incident as Brighton capitalise on shocking defending

Manchester United suffered a late 2-1 defeat at Brighton after one of the most unusual offside incidents I can recall.

Joao Pedro scored a last-minute winner after United striker Amad Diallo cancelled out Danny Welbeck's opener for the Seagulls.

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However, the decisive moment came when Alejandro Garnacho had a goal correctly disallowed in the closing stages.

The substitute found himself with an open goal but crashed his shot past a sliding Joshua Zirkzee who connected with the ball on the goal line.

Zirkzee was in an offside position and a VAR review showed that he was the one who made the final touch.

The potential winner was subsequently ruled out and United manager Erik ten Hag was left fuming on the touchline.

Responding to a comment for talkSPORT, former Premier League striker Darren Bent said: “Garnacho must be thinking: 'Why didn't I put him in an empty goal?'”

They were left ruing the incident (and some shocking defending) when Pedro was left unmarked at the far post in stoppage time.

Any one of three players could have converted Simon Adingra's cross, with eight United players seemingly oblivious to the danger at the far post.

talkSPORT's chief football commentator Sam Matterface could hardly believe the lack of awareness from Ten Hag's men.

He said: “Seriously, despite the fact that they had all those defensive players on the pitch, all the Manchester United defenders – and there are a lot more Manchester United defenders on the pitch than before – they are drawn towards the ball, which creates a lot of space at the far post.

“So much so that when Pedro gets to the end, not only is he in good position, but he has two players behind him who, if he misses, are there to put it in anyway.

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“And all three are completely unmarked!

“It's terrible to defend at the end of a game when they were under pressure and needed to hold on. And that, if Manchester United want to get back into the top four, is another thing they have to improve.”

“But, in reality, it is nothing new. We have seen season after season with Manchester United that they have this mentality of being able to close out games in the last minute, of being able to hold on. But on many occasions they have not been able to do it.”

Bent added: “No Manchester United player turns around and looks and says, 'Wait, he's the centre-forward, why isn't anyone marking him?'

“It was really very poor, and that was perhaps due to a lack of character, a lack of leaders in that Manchester United, because that goal they conceded there was very, very poor.”

Ten Hag's men started the game well but found themselves behind when former academy star Welbeck scored his 100th goal for his club in the first half.

Welbeck also hit the bar before United equalised through Diallo's deflected shot.

Despite the game being in the balance, young Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler made a number of positive changes in search of a winner.

And they found it through Pedro in the final moments of the match.

The Seagulls now lead the Premier League, for the moment, after two wins from their first two games.