Two reasons behind Manchester United’s disappointing defeat to Brighton in the Premier League

Manchester United lost 1-3 to Brighton and Hove Albion at Old Trafford on Saturday, September 16. Danny Welbeck, Pascal Gross, and Joao Pedro scored for Brighton, while Hannibal Mejbri reduced the deficit for the Red Devils.

With that defeat, Manchester United dropped to the 13th place in the league table with six points from five matches, while Brighton moved up to the fourth with 12 points from the same number of matches.

Given the number of off-field issues United are dealing with, the defeat was extremely demoralizing for the Red Devils and Erik ten Hag has a tough job on his hands at the moment.

On that note, let us take a look at two reasons why United lost to Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday:

#1. Lack of width upfront:

United started with a 4-3-1-2 formation, with Marcus Rashford and Rasmus Hojlund upfront and Bruno Fernandes behind them. However, Rashford’s tendency to cut in from the left flank meant he kept shifting to the left at regular intervals.

Rashford's drifting to the left isolated Hojlund on occasions, as the Danish striker did not receive enough passes to make his impact on the match. Still, United looked dangerous only when Rashford darted through the inside-left channel.

Moreover, United also lacked width on the right flank in the first half. The issue was resolved when Fernandes moved to the right in the second half as United shifted to a 4-4-2.

United also switched to a 3-5-2 at times to allow Diogo Dalot and Sergio Reguilon to play as wing-backs to add some width to their attack, but they failed to go into overlaps on a regular basis.

#2. Manchester United full-backs not defending well enough:

Each of Brighton's three goals came through crosses from the flanks, which highlighted the ineptness of United's full-backs. Tariq Lamptey, Brighton's left-back, was a constant source of trouble for United and combined really well with Kaoru Mitoma to give Dalot a torrid time down the left. The former Chelsea defender registered two assists.

Adam Lallana played a nice dummy to help former Manchester United forward Welbeck score the first goal in the 20th minute.

Gross also sold a dummy to Lisandro Martinez before scoring with his right foot in the 53rd minute. Pedro capitalized on a Lamptey assist in the 71st minute to make it 3-0 for the visitors.

Had Andre Onana not saved them on a few occasions, the scoreline might have looked more ignominious for Manchester United.