'Palace wanted it more' - Man Utd were second best throughout Premier League opener, says Giggs

Man Utd were second best throughout their Premier League opener, according to Ryan Giggs, who insists Crystal Palace "wanted it more" and could have won by an even greater margin.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men made the worst possible start to the new season on Saturday, as they succumbed to a 3-1 defeat at home to Roy Hodgson's Eagles, who made it two wins from two after last week's victory over Southampton.

Palace looked the more energetic side right from the first whistle, and took the lead with just seven minutes on the clock through an expert finish from Andros Townsend at the back post.

United toiled in vain to try and find an equaliser but struggled to create any clear cut chances, with substitute Mason Greenwood squandering their best opening early in the second half by failing to put away a free header in the box.

The Red Devils' misery was compounded when Victor Lindelof was penalised for a handball with 20 minutes remaining, allowing Jordan Ayew the chance to double the visitors' lead from the penalty spot.

David de Gea saved Ayew's effort, but the referee ordered a retake after a VAR check ruled that the Spaniard had been slightly off his goal line when the 29-year-old forward struck the ball.

Zaha was allowed to assume spot-kick responsibilities from his team-mate, and made no mistake with his effort from 12 yards against the club he played for between 2013 and 2015.

The Ivorian rubbed extra salt in United's wounds when he scored a second in the 85th minute, leaving Solskjaer to reflect on one of the worst showings of his reign at Old Trafford.

Much has been made of the lack of transfer activity at the club, but Giggs insists the Red Devils should have had enough firepower to beat Palace, and that they ultimately failed to match their "intensity" over the course of the 90 minutes.

"We can talk about new players coming in, but there’s enough quality on that pitch to beat Crystal Palace," the United legend told Premier League Production s.

"Just the intensity wasn’t there. Crystal Palace wanted it more, in the 50-50s, they just looked better for the whole 90 minutes.

"OK, when United scored you thought they could go on and get another, but Palace could have scored more. With Zaha staying onside, a little more quality with the final pass, actually Palace could have gone and broke and scored more.

"Palace were the better team, they started better, but they haven’t had to do a lot for their goals, they haven’t had to do something special. They were soft goals which could have been prevented. Not enough intensity, not enough will to stop the cross."

Giggs added on the below-par defensive showing from United's first-choice centre-back pairin g Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire: "It was poor. Lindelof was poor for the first goal, unlucky for the second goal but that [defending for the third goal] is not good enough, just putting your toe out on the edge of the box.

"And then Harry Maguire has got to close down and do more to stop the shot. But it’s not good enough from the two centre-halves. Wilf is sharp enough to get to the first ball, but that’s not good enough from a United centre-half. They’re 2-1 down, 10 minutes to go, you have to go and win that."

The Welshman was also asked to discuss whether the loss would hasten the need for the Red Devils to bring in number one transfer target Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund, to which he responded: "Yeah, maybe. I think the fans will want that.

"The fans won’t be happy now because even before, if they’d got a positive result, they still want to see new faces through the door and also a few going out as well. So there’s a lot to think of for Ole and the board."