Brighton 2
Man Utd 1
It was never going to be an easy match away vs Brighton, but I honestly believed that we would win today. Sadly, we dropped 3 points and 2 of them, at the very end with what in my book is amateur defending and totally unacceptable.
ETH started with exactly the same line up that he picked vs Fulham. I suggested that he should drop Rashford and Mount and replace them with Garnacho and Zirkzee. Well, my message was a bit late in arriving it seems….that damn fax at OT is playing up again!!
First 30 minutes were balanced with not much happening really but just after the half hour Brighton forged ahead with a goal that saw our defence being caught flat footed and Danny Welbeck prodding home from close range. I did play a bit of amateur football in my days and one thing I recall coaches telling me when playing at full back was ‘do not allow the crosses to come in, anticipate the winger if possible, if not, stand your ground and watch the ball, block the cross from coming in’. It seems Dalot went to a different footballing school – a better one for sure – he made it and I’ve been stuck in a 9 to 5 job since forever! But bloody hell block that cross if you can and do not stand 5 metres away!!
I was never a big fan of Welbeck at United but will concede that he was a decent striker in his younger years, despite being hampered by injuries. Our defence struggled to cope with an ageing Welbeck today…nuff said.
I somehow was still optimistic that we would get 3 points despite being 0-1 down at HT. We were not having a great game, but it was Brighton after all and we just needed to produce some quality and score 2 goals. Simple, I thought…or maybe not!
Amad brought us level on 60 minutes when he was able to run behind the Brighton defenders thanks t7o an early ball forward – a rarity as ETH seems to prefer a slow build up. Now let’s go on and win this. And indeed, it seemed so when Garnacho (on for Rashford – the fax did get through after all!) seemed to have given us the lead when he squeezed the ball home. Zirkzee (on for Mount at HT) happened to be on the goal line – and the ball hit his knee. Extremely unfortunate, but offside and right decision. I still believed we had time for the winner with 20 minutes to go.
ETH introduced McTominay, De Ligt and also Antony and we can debate these changes forever but the end result is that they were not effective this time round. Brighton won it at the death thanks to what to me is simply shocking at professional level. 3 players of Brighton were left alone on the right and of them headed home – all this in the 95th minute! Where was Dalot in that instance? How did all our defence move towards the ball and leave 3 Brighton players alone? I’m writing this 7 hours later and still fuming!
OK. This is not a season defining defeat, and I am never going to press the panic button after just 2 matches. But if I had to make a logical calculation, I would say that unless ETH gets a minimum of 20 points from the first 10 matches, the pressure will be immense. The problem I have with ETH is that he seems unable to c7hange things round tactically. Our build up is slow, and as a result, our forwards and wingers running behind the opposing defenders for a through ball is simply a rarity these days. I grew up on a diet of players like Giggs an Kanchelskis flying on the wing (and Coppell and Hill before them) and United scoring a goal seconds after the ball being in our defence area. Nowadays, it takes two minutes to get to the other half. And the problem starts from the keeper.
Anyways, let us hope that we can bounce back next weekend with a win and ETH can shut me and a few million others like me up… Numquam Moribimur.
