Paul Pogba has conceded that Brighton & Hove Albion "had more hunger" than Manchester United in Sunday's 3-2 defeat at the Amex Stadium.
A slow start for the Red Devils saw the Seagulls two goals up by the half-hour mark, Glenn Murray and Shane Duffy scoring within two-and-a-half minutes of each other.
Although Romelu Lukaku halved the deficit 11 minutes before the break, Eric Bailly's reckless challenge on Pascal Gross inside the area yielded a penalty which the German rifled home.
"I'm disappointed, with my performance and the team performance," Pogba, who scored a late penalty for United, told BBC Sport. "We didn't deserve to win.
"I will always try. I know I lost a lot of balls which shouldn't happen. I tried, I kept pushing, that's my personality. I tried to help the team as much as possible. It didn't happen today.
"Brighton prepared the game very well. Maybe we didn't have the attitude to break them, to kill them when we had to kill them and to go through the lines. That's a lesson we have to keep in mind.
"If we deserve to win I will say that but today the truth is we didn't play well enough. They had more hunger than us and the result is the right one for them."
Man United slip to 11th in the fledgling Premier League table following the defeat on the South Coast.
