The winners and losers as Man Utd’s summer disaster rears its head in Brighton defeat

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In a shock on the south coast, Brighton blew Manchester United away, winning 3-2.

This was Brighton’s third consecutive home victory over United, and they were as impressive as the Red Devils were poor. Who were the winners and losers? Read on and find out!

Winner: Glenn Murray

Glenn Murray is a lower-league journeyman who, at 34, probably doesn’t have many more seasons in him. He probably won’t even be Brighton’s starting striker in a month. But he had a performance to remember against Manchester United.

Murray was delightful against the Red Devils, tormenting their struggling centre-backs with his relentless, physical play. He scored the opening goal for his side, too, making a sublime run in behind Victor Lindelof and then chipping David De Gea with a sublime bit of improvisational finishing. It was a truly gorgeous finish and really set the tone for Brighton’s subsequent domination.

Loser: Paul Pogba

Paul Pogba did not play well against Brighton. It was one of his more lethargic displays where he defended spottily and attacked with great infrequency. Rumours that his relationship with José Mourinho have broken down were given credence by the sheer apathy on his face for the majority of the game, even though he was captain.

He perked up near the end of the match, however, playing a couple of incisive passes and launching a rocket of a shot that Matty Ryan saved superbly. He goes down as a loser not just because his performance was mostly bad, but because he actually lost something: before today every time Pogba had scored for Manchester United, they had won the games. 11 wins up to now, a truly impressive run. His consolation penalty (which was excellently taken, to be fair) meant that his winning-streak at United is now over.

Loser: Eric Bailly

When Eric Bailly signed for Manchester United, eyebrows were raised at the fee for a player with just a season and a half of professional football under his belt, but Bailly settled into things immediately and looked a tyrant in the making. Fearless, athletic and immensely skilled, Bailly fast became one of the league’s finest defenders.

Then he got injured, and Mourinho began needling him for not returning fast enough. When he was fit again, Mourinho didn’t pick him. These things appear to have gotten to Bailly, with his solid display a week ago against Leicester seeming like a red herring. Bailly was truly shocking against Brighton and was culpable for all three goals that United conceded. His decision-making was rash, which compounded the fact that he was positionally poor. It’s hard to recall one thing he did well.

Winner: Chris Hughton

In the second-last game of 2017/18, Chris Hughton masterminded a historic win over Manchester United. The club’s first since 1982.

Now, in the second game of 2018/19, Chris Hughton has once again masterminded a historic win over Manchester United. This time it wasn’t just 1-0, although we saw another Pascal Gross penalty, but a thoroughly dominant 3-2 win (United’s second came right at the death).

Brighton did excellent business in the transfer market this summer, but the vast majority of those attackers weren’t ready to play and so didn’t. Imagine taking United to pieces without Florin Andone or the brilliant Alireza Jahanbaksh?

Hughton set Brighton up to be compact without the ball, pressing United in key central zones and constantly running at the obvious weak point of their side where Juan Mata and Ashley Young were defending the right-flank. He even lost his star centre-back to an early injury and Brighton still played on.

Loser: José Mourinho

As much as one would like to simply blame the United players for underperforming or “not wanting it enough” – one has to look at José Mourinho’s culpability in all this. Literally every single outfielder in today’s Manchester United XI, even the ancient Ashley Young, has looked excellent playing for coaches that aren’t José Mourinho. How can it be that all of these talented players are now suddenly no good?

Mourinho’s influence on the United dressing room is palpable. The negativity that he has been spewing all pre-season is clearly having an effect on the players (even their opening-night win against Leicester was far from convincing).

His comments about Victor Lindelof being “punished” by being forced to play on the left side of defence seemed like a ridiculous way to try and motivate a defender, and so it came to pass as Lindelof struggled all night, looking just slightly less nervous than Bailly alongside him.

And in attack, the lack of a proper structure was once again notable as United’s glittering forward line was dulled by Brighton’s entirely ordinary defending. This was a side who lost their defensive lynchpin to injury and just carried on shutting United down because United simply weren’t posing them any difficult questions.

They played like a group of co-workers from different departments who had drunkenly staggered onto a five-a-side pitch after the office Christmas party. There was some semblance of these people knowing each other, but any notion of team-work remained an impossible concept to grasp.

Winner: Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal

It’s clear that Manchester City and Liverpool are going to be the top two in the Premier League this season. They are by far and away the best sides in the division. But those last two Champions League spots? Those things are very much in play now that United have revealed themselves to be an absolute omnishambles.

Obviously, it’s still early in the season, so there’s still time for things to change; but United’s pre-season was poor, their opening night win papered over the cracks, and now their first away game was a disaster. So instead of Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal fighting over one spot, there’s two to compete for and, should Mourinho stay in charge there’s a very real chance United won’t even join them in competing for it.

Loser: Ed Woodward

Much as it would be easy to lay all the blame at José Mourinho’s feet, ultimately he is not the highest point in United’s hierarchy of blame. From the players to Mourinho, we end up at Ed Woodward; friend of super agents and Manchester United’s Chief Executive.

The banker put in charge of United, football strategy n’ all, has had a terrible summer. Perhaps his worst, which is saying something given he once had a summer where he signed no one but Marouane Fellaini on deadline day.

José Mourinho made it clear in the summer that he wanted a right-back, left-back, centre-back, centre midfielder and a right-winger. In the end, he only got two of those, one of which (Diogo Dalot) was very much a project. And whilst Luke Shaw’s resurgence will mitigate the lack of a left-back, United are still obviously in need of both a right-winger and a centre-back.

The need for a winger could be mitigated by 3-5-2 but Mourinho has discarded that formation for some reason. The centre-back remains the biggest miss, though. United’s defenders all excel as the secondary defenders, they’re not organisers and never will be. United need that organiser, and the idea that they didn’t sign Toby Alderweireld over a difference of £10m is ludicrous given how much he would have improved them.

Mourinho is a temperamental coach, but Woodward knew that when appointing him. He knew that when you have Mourinho as your coach, you give him what he wants or he will implode. For two summers now Woodward hasn’t given Mourinho what he wanted, and this summer even briefed that he questioned the manager’s judgement on certain players.

If you’re going to undermine a manager like that then you have to sack him. Instead, Woodward carries on as though this is totally normal; leaving Manchester United a structural disaster.

The post The winners and losers as Man Utd’s summer disaster rears its head in Brighton defeat appeared first on Squawka News.



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