Manchester United did not look one iota different to their 2021/22 selves as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.The very same problems that had festered away on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick's watch were apparent once again in what marked a damning start to United's Premier League season.From the unstructured build-up play to the jumbled midfield shape, the Red Devils flapped and flailed in their attempts to stop the Seagulls from nabbing all three points at the 'Theatre of Dreams'.

Man Utd 1-2 Brighton

Now, to an extent, this shouldn't come as a surprise, because Erik ten Hag isn't a miracle worker and no United fan should have expected their team to have taken to the pitch looking like prime Barcelona.

You only have to look at the teething problems that Pep Guardiola experienced in his first season at Manchester City to grasp that implementing an entire style of play isn't something that happens overnight.

Nevertheless, you can understand United fans at least wanting to keep up their record of never having lost at home to Brighton and being able to point towards one or two moments that they could identify as being illustrative of 'Ten Hag ball'.

Instead, they were left tearing their hair out at the sight of United players singing off 11 different hymn sheets with an individual error to hand every other minute.

Man United BEAT & EMBARRASSED! Manchester United 1-2 Brighton Highlights (Football Terrace)

Analysis video of Man Utd's tactics

It's a tough pill to swallow and the autopsy of United's performance is no doubt underway already, both from the perspective of Ten Hag and his coaches as well as the players looking to improve their game.

Oh, and by the fantastic team over at Tifo Football, who are the arguably the best in the business at lifting up the bonnet of world-class teams to show exactly how their tactics work in layman's terms.

In the aftermath of United's miserable defeat to Brighton, they turned to the tactics board to work out where it all went wrong and exactly what it is about 'Ten Hag ball' that the team simply isn't getting right now.

The result? A fascinating analysis video declaring: "Ten Hag has big problems," that you should check out for yourselves down below, before scrolling down to see us unpack some of the biggest takeaways.

Ouch. That's got to make for tough viewing for a United fans.

Why Ten Hag has 'big problems'

The root cause of a lot of the problems unpacked in Tifo's brilliant video is that United players take too much time on the ball, and that can be traced back to David de Gea, who was so poor against Brighton that he was even the subject of a viral disasterclass video.

The Red Devils number one would often dilly-dally in possession, which was also true of many outfield players such as Lisandro Martinez, before uselessly hoofing the ball up the pitch.

United's lack of a centre forward before the introduction of Christian Eriksen meant that Brighton could push further up the pitch, often cranking up their press whenever the ball was transitioned to Fred.

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - AUGUST 07: Fred of Manchester United in ac during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford on August 07, 2022 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Brighton would then turn the screw on Fred to try and smother his proclivity for shorter passes, while Scott McTominay's woes with playing progressive passes under pressure couldn't get United out of jail.

This all culminated in Eriksen dropping deep out of frustration that the ball never got to him, meaning that Brighton could push their wing-backs insanely far up the pitch because there was never any immediate pressure on their centre-backs.

Leandro Trossard and Solly March were subsequently crucial in both of Brighton's goals as they were able to create overloads out wide.

However, the situation certainly wasn't helped by a really poor performance from Harry Maguire, who displayed some questionable positioning and decision-making to go with a generally detrimental habit of dropping further and further back.

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - AUGUST 07: Harry Maguire of Manchester United applauds the fans after the Premier League match between Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford on August 07, 2022 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Things did improve for United after the break when Cristiano Ronaldo could actually apply pressure to the Seagulls' back-line, but some fantastic game-management from Graham Potter helped Brighton to see the game out.

All in all, it leaves Ten Hag with some serious work to do as he tries to engrain his style of football into this United squad.

It's no wonder that the club has been so doggedly chasing Frenkie de Jong because the Red Devils are crying out for a technically-gifted midfielder to progress the ball up the pitch and solve their build-up problem.

Soccer Football - UEFA Nations League - Group D - Netherlands v Wales - Feyenoord Stadium, Rotterdam, Netherlands - June 14, 2022 Netherlands' Frenkie de Jong during the warm up REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw

That, and the fact that United need to get a move on with both their passing and pressing.