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Manchester United suffered a shock defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion as Chris Hughton's side scored three goals in the first half to put United in a concerning spot. However, Jose Mourinho's players were unable to script a comeback, and their performance in the second half was extremely uninspiring as such. Here, we discuss the five talking points from United's defeat at the Amex Stadium.
#5 Brighton put pressure and capitalize on it:
Brighton displayed incessant energy from the initial stages to put United’s midfielders into pressure. Despite budging the early bouts of zest from the Seagulls, United’s midfielders failed to stamp their authority in the first half.
The Seagulls took control of the game through the centre, as they recovered the possession and worked the ball swifter and quicker than usual. They were more industrious, often breaching the midfield lines or distributing the ball to wings.
Their right winger, Anthony Knockaert brought a sense of unpredictability as he kept changing his style of play, often drifting out wide to send crosses or cutting in from the wings in order to exchange quick passes and burst into the penalty box.
Eventually, Brighton notched two early goals, including a sumptuous finish where he chipped the ball over David de Gea. Two minutes later, Shane Duffy scored a goal from a scrappy corner, but it was a valuable one nonetheless.
Brighton’s early dominance materialized into something productive in terms of goals, and hence Brighton set the correct tone for the match.
#4 Manchester United bounce back but not for too long:
After being two goals down, United showed some good intent to go ahead and earned minutes after Duffy’s goal. Ashley Young’s corner-kick was managed well by Luke Shaw, who then lobbed it over to Romelu Lukaku who scored cleanly through a header.
This was a very important goal from United’s perspective as they minimized Brighton’s cushion quite early on and had enough time to score other two goals. On many occasions in the past, United had mounted a comeback after going down by two goals.
The key to that is to score an early goal and to not concede anymore in the match. Lukaku’s header meant that United could have built on that and controlled the tempo and the momentum of the match. However, Eric Bailly’s reckless tackle inside the box allowed Brighton a spot-kick.
Pascal Gross stepped up to take the kick and managed to put the ball back into the net. It wasn’t the best of spot-kicks, as De Gea nearly saved it with his feet.
However, Bailly’s carelessness and casual approach at this moment quite possibly took the game away from United’s hands.
#3 Brighton played smart in the second half:
Chris Hughton has a tendency to set up his sides with defence as the primary priority. They look to attack sporadically yet clinically, and that was visible in their approach in the final forty-five minutes.
After having snatched the two-goal cushion through the Gross’ goal in the 42nd minute, they restructured their tactics and played according to the demands of the situation.
Brighton were shrewd enough to understand that sitting back and inviting pressure would put United in the attacking front, so they continued with the high-press in the midfield areas.
They showed better zest and desire to recover the ball and move it forward, hence never allowing United to build their play from the midfield.
Eventually, Jose had to resort to his Plan ‘B’, bring Marouane Fellaini in for Anthony Martial at around the hour mark. After Fellaini’s introduction, the plan changed to launch long balls, whilst also mixing it with some passes from the centre.
However, Brighton looked to dominate in the air, and on the field too, thus neutralizing United’s strengths, and thus holding on to their lead and looking threatening on the attack accordingly whenever presented with a chance too.
#2 Not much impact from the substitutes:
Alexis Sanchez’s injury meant that United lacked the Chilean’s quality and the ability to change the course of the match within minutes on the field. However, with two goals to chase, Mourinho took off Juan Mata and Andreas Pereira for Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard respectively.
Lingard played as the third midfielder as Fred shifted to the centre an. Rashford played from the right before Fellaini’s arrival on the field but shifted to the left thereafter. The bright spark arrived from Lingard’s decoy runs through the inner channels of both the flanks.
He was making the right runs, often freeing himself and looking to collect passes on the run. However, Pogba and Fred, who were expected to set the tempo of the game failed to deliver the accurate passes and hence Lingard’s runs weren’t utilized as such.
The weight of the passes was disappointing, as they were often quicker than required and hence there was an obvious lack of cohesion in that aspect. Rashford’s directness became predictable as such, and the lad failed to make the desired impact from either flank.
Fellaini looked up to the mark, always knocking down the long balls and placing the second balls for the runners. However, others failed to tee up with him either, and thus the substitutions did not yield out the needed results.
#1 Who’s to be blamed?
With the tough competition that the top-six clubs are going to be engaged in this season, it was extremely important for United to milk out the maximum points against the lower-ranked oppositions. Mourinho’s team had dropped points against the likes of Huddersfield Town, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion and even Brighton last season.
The ability to churn out victories against these teams had to be the primary objective going into this season. However, as the match progressed, it was becoming apparent that the individual defensive errors were proving out to be quite costly.
Lindelof was very shaky in the backline, and Bailly’s brittleness coupled with his casual intent played a stimulating part in all of Brighton’s goals. Even Pogba did not clear the ball appropriately from the corner that resulted in Duffy’s goal.
With these individual errors, it would be very unfair to entirely blame the manager for the situation. While there was a messed up attacking pattern in the final stages, it was an offspring of the unrest caused by the three goals scored by Brighton.
It is undoubtedly true, that United’s players have to demonstrate better attitude and milk out their best efforts if they were to avoid such similar hiccups going ahead in the campaign.
