Manchester United were left shocked by the weekend’s result against Brighton. The Seagulls claimed a 3-2 victory over Jose Mourinho’s men, putting further pressure on the Portuguese and his squad.

But it wasn’t just the result that was so appalling, it was the performance of the entire team on the day – they lacked so much of what we are used to seeing United players give.

It will serve as such a bitter blow to everyone involved with the Reds, but at the same time there were issues with the team that everyone knew about already, and it’s surprising that nothing was done to improve those issues in the transfer window.

United were in desperate need of defensive reinforcements in the summer, not least a defensive general with an experienced head on him. However, for whatever reason, United failed to do that.

Former United captain Gary Neville spoke after the Brighton defeat about why Mourinho’s defence isn’t good enough, and questioned the club’s transfer policy after their failure to bring in exactly what was needed in the summer.

“There’s no doubt that before the first game of the season, Manchester United needed one or two authoritative new centre-backs,” said Neville on Sky Sports.

“Jose Mourinho, in his own words, gave the list, and it wasn’t delivered. For whatever reason – maybe they were too expensive, they didn’t fit the club’s philosophy or players weren’t available.

“You knew full well that once Manchester United hadn’t signed those players that the current centre-backs were going to be under big, big pressure.

“What we’ve seen today are two players in Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof who are lacking confidence a little bit or maybe they aren’t quite good enough. Maybe the answer lies somewhere in between.

“To me, they look like second-fiddle centre-backs. If they had, for instance, John Terry, Jaap Stam, Rio Ferdinand or Nemanja Vidic alongside them then they would probably be alright.

“I’m not making excuses for them. There has been £120m of investment in that back four. You’ve probably got the best goalkeeper in the world, so from a back-five point of view, you could argue there has been serious investment.

“However, they are not good enough. Collectively they are not good enough and individually they are not good enough.

“I know some of those lads and I’ve worked with them. I think they could operate in a really good back four, but they need one or two players of stature around them. Jose Mourinho knew that.

“Whatever the club think about not wanting to invest further in centre-backs because they’ve already got five etc, doesn’t matter. The end result is still the same. You still need a new back four, you still need new centre-backs.

“It doesn’t matter if you think you’ve spent too much money in that area, you still have to make the decision that if Toby Alderweireld or Harry Maguire are available then you’ve just got to go and get them if you are Manchester United.

“He [Mourinho] is in his third season and I think he will feel extremely disappointed that he wasn’t supported in the transfer market. You can’t leave a house three-quarters built. You have to finish it and complete the build. Then you can think about selling it or renting it because nobody is going to pick it up off you half-built.

“He needs further investment. It’s obvious that he does and the club should support him in that because you can’t withdraw part way through a process. They have to go for it.”

United find themselves in a sticky situation just two games into the new season, but surely it was inevitable that this would happen? Maybe the blame shouldn’t lie with Mourinho and his tactics, but Ed Woodward and the backroom staff instead.