Three observations after Manchester United suffer 3-1 defeat against Brighton

After Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Brighton, Manchester United have lost three of their opening five games of a Premier League season for the first time in the competition’s history.

Erik ten Hag was faced with multiple injuries to a number of key players and he stumbled across some selection problems.

United started well and looked to be on top before Brighton scored after 20 minutes. There was no way back after that. A total collapse.

Brighton were 3 goals clear before Hannibal Mejbri pulled one back, to make it 3-1. To they have added more salt to our wounds with another goal or two before the end as well.

Problems mount for Ten Hag

While I think it’s utterly daft for anyone to call for Ten Hag’s head, the credit he has built up over time is dwindling for multiple reasons. The flurry of question marks that hang over the club and dressing room doesn’t help.

It took me a long time to figure out what kind of role Scott McTominay was playing, if it was on the right, why didn’t Facundo Pellistri come on earlier?

It could be worse. Imagine playing Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday night…

Poor defending

All three of Brighton’s goals could have easily been avoided. Danny Welbeck back to haunt us again for the game’s opener and he was left unmarked inside the box.

Brighton’s second goal saw Pascal Grob weave his way into the United box before beating Lisandro Martinez and finding the bottom-left corner.

The third goal saw another unmarked player score inside United’s box, but Andre Onana could have done more for at least two of their goals.

Martinez doesn’t look himself this season and Victor Lindelof is back playing the way most of us feared.

Crisis mode?

There’s nothing an away win at Bayern can’t sort, but it certainly looks like we have a crisis both on and off the pitch at United.

United are sat 12th in the Premier League after losing three of their first five matches. The only way to come out of crisis mode is by winning football matches.

The ongoing situations with Antony and Jadon Sancho hardly help, so the mood at the club must be very low right now.

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2 Comments

  1. de zerbi said after the game that they keep the same style, win or lose. thats his philosophy. ETH was supposed to be that guy. but he has turned out to be risk averse and frankly a poor manager. maybe he would suit a more defensive team like west ham. thats his level.

    united should be looking at their next appointment already and if de zerbi is true to his word then they should look at somone like him. he has a style and gets players to suit said style.

    days are numbered for ETH.

  2. i was getting sick of the constant Ten Hag knows him or has worked with him with our transfers well he wasn’t playing in the Premier league with them which is far harder than most leagues our youth players are getting sold off for a pittance and we’re buying expensive flops for a quick fix which obviously isn’t working

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