Darren Fletcher urges ‘fragile’ Manchester United players to ‘dig deep’, says fans have ‘every right to air grievances’ after FA Cup exit to Brighton

It means that United have only Premier League games left to play this season, having already exited the Carabao Cup and with no European football this campaign.

The squad were greeted with near silence after the final whistle as supporters realised their club is now unlikely to end the season with any silverware.

“It was mixed really. I thought we started okay, then the goal knocked the stuffing out of us, and we didn’t really create a tempo,” said Fletcher, who stepped up from his Under-18s role to temporarily replace the sacked Ruben Amorim.

“We didn’t play enough balls in behind and test them. I think our passing was quite slow. I challenged them at half-time, It was similar to the game midweek. Move the ball with composure, but you need to move the ball with tempo and that was difficult.”

Highlights: Welbeck stars as Brighton dump out Man Utd

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After avoiding defeat with a 2-2 draw away to Burnley in the league, Fletcher’s hopes of injecting some positivity into a difficult situation were squashed by former United player Welbeck, who scored following Gruda’s opener.

“I thought we created enough chances but then to go 2-0 down was disappointing,” Fletcher added.

“But the lads responded well and when we got back to 2-1 I thought, ‘Here we go.’ The crowd was up, the energy was up, but ultimately we couldn’t get over the line and get an equalising goal.

“But I think you can see that the players are fragile and they need to build themselves up. Because it’s up to them now, they’ve got to respond.”

United are expected to announce a caretaker manager for the remainder of the season and Fletcher revealed he has had no conversations about staying on in the role as he called on the players to “dig deep.”

He added: “You concede a goal and the confidence hits them as well. Confidence is one of the most powerful things in football. When you don’t have confidence, you’ve got to dig deep and you have to battle, grind, fight, work, win games and then the confidence comes back.

“I challenged them to regroup and it’s over to them. Someone’s going to come in and lead them and it’s up to them to make sure they have a lot to play for this season. This team’s still good enough to achieve success this season but they’ve got to dig deep and find it within themselves.”

‘You can feel it on everybody’ – Man Utd ‘frustration’ and ‘resignation’ after Brighton defeat

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As for his position, Fletcher said: “This is what I’ve been asked to do, so I’ve not had any discussion beyond that. I’ve done the job this week and we had to concentrate on the game.

“It’s only them in the situation, it’s only them that can do something about it, build the confidence through grinding out some results. You want to play nice football but you have to find the way to win first and once you do that … hard work, attitude, application.

“It might not be pretty at times, but from there you can grow and build and the fast, exciting football can come.”

United gave themselves a glimmer of hope courtesy of an 85th-minute strike from Benjamin Sesko, but the hosts failed to mount any more pressure on Brighton and a red card for Shea Lacey hampered matters even further.

“Ultimately, the first Shea Lacey foul is not a yellow card. I’ve no idea how the Brighton players didn’t get yellow cards in the first half,” Fletcher said.

“Shea Lacey’s yellow card is ridiculous compared to the fouls that we had against us all game. Ultimately then the lad makes a mistake and is sent off. For me, it’s poor refereeing.”

Fletcher also sympathised with supporters, adding that he understands their disappointment at the team crashing out another competition.

“Only Premier League games to play left,” he said. “Fans weren’t happy at the end but they’ve got every right to air their grievances, and I don’t think it was toxic by any stretch of the imagination.

“They showed their disappointment and they have every right to do that. They’ve supported the team for a long time, Old Trafford’s an amazing atmosphere. They’re out of the cup today so understandably, they’re disappointed.”