Manchester United legend Paul Scholes claims that the struggles of Anthony Martial and Romelu Lukaku in the defeat to Brighton stemmed from Paul Pogba's performance.

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has criticised Paul Pogba's performance during the club's 3-2 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.

Pogba netted a late penalty for the visitors at the Amex Stadium, but it proved to only be a consolation goal and the World Cup winner admitted after the match that he had gone into the game with the wrong attitude.

Scholes believes that the stand-in captain's performance played a major role in the struggles of Anthony Martial and Romelu Lukaku further up the pitch.

"Lukaku can [win games]. Martial can do it. Martial, in that first half – what was he on for? 55 minutes? An hour? He got one ball down the left-hand side in the first half," Scholes told Optus Sport.

"And he absolutely flew past the right-back. I can't remember another time when you get the ball to him. As a midfield player for Man United, your job is to get the ball to your best players who can hurt [the opposition].

"But the Man United midfield players could never do it. They couldn't get a ball in to Lukaku, they couldn't get a ball in to Martial and they couldn't get a ball in to [Marcus] Rashford when he came on.

"There's lack of leaders in the team, that's why we thought Paul Pogba might be the ideal candidate to be that leader but he wasn't there tonight. He had another really poor game. He's so inconsistent."

Pogba has called on his teammates to show an immediate response to the defeat when they take on top-four rivals Tottenham Hotspur next Monday night.