3 reasons why Manchester United lost against Brighton

#1 It's time to get Jesse Lingard on for Juan Mata

Brighton & Hove Albion v Manchester United - Premier League

It is quite difficult to discern what exactly Juan Mata is doing on the right side of the pitch for Manchester United. He was never a fast player and with age, he has gotten even slower. However, Jose Mourinho has started him in both games so far.

Mata has failed to do anything of note over the two fixtures. He failed to pop up in spaces that could have threatened the Brighton defence- something which Jesse Lingard seems to be able to do with ease.

There is no mobility when Mata is playing alongside Pogba, Fred and Andreas Pereira. Fred and Pereira were negative in their approach and Mata being stuck in a swamp on one side, failing to offer width or penetration was a frustrating thing to behold.

Jesse Lingard is a smart player and he proved this over the course of the last season. Why he does not get the nod ahead of Juan Mata should baffle everyone if this goes on.

Lingard is perhaps the only Manchester United player who makes daring runs that can upend defences and he has the ability to hit the target from range and is also a great passer of the ball.

It's time for Manchester United to get their act together and Jesse Lingard should be at the centre of the new movement.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sankalp Srivastava