Match Review: Brighton v Manchester United

A tough one at the Amex. Ends our run of 3 consecutive undefeated games. 

The Good

Being a heavy defeat, there wasn't too many positives to take from this one. United were far superior in the first half, however, the second half showed many positives. 

The introduction of Trossard and Maupay at half-time gave the spark we needed, with the duo getting three shots agonizingly close. 

Connolly also had a great effort tipped over by De Gea. A solid second-half performance by the Spanish goalkeeper, who had been under fire after his error vs Tottenham. 

The second half performance was something of what we should expect to see vs Norwich. I doubt we will play the kind of tactical defense we have been playing for the last three matches. 

Just a side note, I heard this in the fan banter- Dan Burn playing in a forward role. I hope we see that sometime in the final three matches (once safety is all but clinched). 

Also hope to see Murray feature a bit more so he has hope of reaching that all-time scoring record. In case you forgot, he has signed a contract for next year so his time hasn't quite ran out to get it. 

The Bad

The first half. Not much else needed. A Chris Hughton-esque performance, with 10 of 11 players dropping deep to help in defense. That left poor 20-year old Aaron Connolly up the pitch by himself, and even so he was able to win two free kicks in the attacking half. 

I understand why Potter went defensive- it was United team in great form and lethal on the attack. Not to mention that in the reverse fixture we played attacking football and got caught on the break many times. 

So, he must have thought, we should back off, hope we make it to halftime down 0-1, and begin to adjust. That hope was squandered though, as we found ourselves down 0-2 at the break. 

Even still, he brought on attacking forces, but one breathtaking counter-attack from United was all they needed to seal the win. 

It was one of those games where you look for a weakness in the opposing team and you can't find any. 

Against Arsenal, we found a weakness with their set-piece mix up and took advantage. We also found a Gunners side that seemingly lost confidence after the equalizer, and went on for the win. In the Leicester match, we took advantage of a side that hadn't built its chemistry back and gotten back to top form since the lockdown. 

But here, there was very little to work with. 

Their midfield was dominant throughout and set up the counter attack. Greenwood was lethal from the right and aggressively gave United their first goal. As I had said in the match preview midfield would be the most important factor. Pogba, Bruno Fernandes, and Matic were devastating in attack. Fernandes bagged two goals and Matic sent a beautiful acrobatic pass to set up United's third.

Compare that to our midfield, where Propper must have come into the game thinking this was a Kevin De Bruyne imitation contest. 

Stephens I said would be a tough edge to the back line, instead he decided to give the Stephens Haters Fan Network something to rave about (at least in the first half). Bissouma was so far back in defense I thought Potter was trying to play him at Left wing-back. 

A rough outing indeed.

The jokes aside, it was a far superior United performance. In all honesty, they deserved to win. 

Looking Ahead... 

Saturday we face Norwich City, who seemed doomed for relegation bar a miracle. So in theory, we should be able to grab the three points. Unless Brighton pull a Brighton. Let's hope not.

Alzate is still nursing his injury and might feature. Webster will probably be thrown back into the lineup since Potter loves his new signing even though Duffy is a solid center-back. 

I think the most hot topic on Albion fan's minds is if Jahanbakhsh will feature, which I really can't predict. Some fans have speculated that he had coronavirus, which may be true. We just have to wait it out. 

I believe if we get the three points on Saturday, we can stay up. An important fixture indeed.