Another odd day at the office. Even though United played poorly they came away with the three points. Winning while playing badly, isn’t that the mark of – I can’t even finish that.
Brighton played very well at Old Trafford. They sat deep looking to hit the home side on the break with pace. It worked very well and Brighton could easily have left Manchester with all three points if it wasn’t for some sloppy finishing and poor decision making in the final third.
Pogba forced the opposing goalkeeper into a great double save in the first half. Besides that United never looked like scoring. Everything United did came from the flanks, they rarely tried to mix it up and go central. Brighton were very comfortable and lapped it up.
United had a stroke of luck late in the 66th minute. Ashley Young, who was very poor overall, took a shot from range that deflected off of Lewis Dunk and looped into the Brighton goal.
You could argue United deserved something for all of their attacking endeavour, toothless as it may have been, but it was cruel on Dunk. Look, at the end of the day I don’t care as long as we win but I felt for the guy.
In the build up to this goal it seemed Lukaku was involved in an incident with Brightons Gaetan Bong. Lukaku appeared to kick out at him but the ref took no action. I think even with my United hat on I could not disagree with the FA if they hand down a three match ban. I think Lukaku could do with sitting out a few games regardless!
If Lukaku does get a ban the FA need to take another look at the Shane Duffy horror challenge on the returning Zlatan. Duffy caught him with a two footed lunge which the ref deemed to be only a yellow card offense. Poor.
There really isn’t much else to say. United badly struggled to break down a very organised team. This team, with an array of attacking talent, should not be struggling at home against a newly promoted side.
With games with Arsenal and Man City to come after a trip to Watford, United need to be better. Too many chances are wasted when we find it hard to create opportunities. If we don’t improve we will find ourselves even further behind in this title race.
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