Brighton & Hove Albion beat Manchester United 2-1 at the AmEx stadium recently, to go to the top of the Premier League table with six points from two matches. Manchester United, meanwhile, has thus suffered their first defeat of the season, with Erik ten Hag continuing to have an underwhelming time as the Red Devils’ manager.
Brighton took the lead in the first half of the match, but United equalized in the second half only to find themselves behind once again in the dying minutes of the match.
As a result, United has already started off the season with a rather negative result as they once again lose to the Seagulls. They will have to get their act together pretty soon to avoid having a repeat of last season.
Brighton More Dominant in Match
Quite surprisingly, Brighton did not seem affected by United’s stature as a club and pressed for a match-winner after the latter had equalized. The home side kept dominating the ball and Yankuba Minteh had an intense battle with Diogo Dalot, United’s left-back, down the right flank.
Had Minteh’s deliveries been more precise, United might have suffered even more. Still, he played a part in Brighton’s first goal. United started with Bruno Fernandes as a false nine again and he and Mason Mount pressed high to put some pressure on Brighton’s defence.
However, the attacking edge was lacking with Fernandes and Mount as the two most advanced players in United’s set-up. Joshua Zirkzee replaced Mount in the second half. However, it was not until Amad Diallo and Alejandro Garnacho, who came in for Marcus Rashford in the second half, started attacking through the flanks with enough space to exploit that Manchester United looked threatening enough.
It is quite evident that most of the other teams in the Premier League are no longer scared of Manchester United and fancy their chances of scoring goals against them. The way João Pedro and Danny Welbeck, the two goal-scorer s for the home side, kept coming up with interceptions anf dominated proceedings in the final third, is not a good sign for the Red Devils for the matches to come.
Manchester United Has a Difficult Schedule Coming Up
United have a few tough matches coming up within the next few weeks, which might go on to decide the course of their season. They have Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa as part of their next opponents. It is not going to be easy for them unless there is some marked improvement in their performance.
Ten Hag will have to take a call as regards the inclusion of Garnacho in the starting XI, as Rashford is not inspiring confidence at the moment.
Moreover, with a player like Jadon Sancho, who played in the UEFA Champions League final for Borussia Dortmund last season, in the squad, he has to look for other alternatives while picking his squad for a match. It remains to be seen whether the Dutch manager can think his way out of the crisis that continue to plague his team.