3 Ups and 5 Downs of Brighton 2-3 Man United

Holy Bleep. 18 shots. 5 woodwork hits. An overturned penalty call. Two full time whistles. Man United needed a win to really kickstart their season after the Palace diasterclass last time out and several heart attacks and broken TV’s later.

Brighton deserved to win that game hands down but United, and the woodwork, managed to keep the ‘seagulls’ at bay. With so much to digest let’s get straight into it and award those ups and downs.

DOWN – BYE BYE BAILLY

If I were Eric Bailly, I would be fuming with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. After putting in a solid display against Luton in midweek, I would expect to replace a man that was at direct fault for all three goals against Crystal Palace last week. Not that Lindelof was bad today, but it is papering over the cracks that is our centre back partnership. It’s been trailed and tested and failed so why keep trying. No disrespect to Victor but his inclusion was a strange one when a fully fit Eric Bailly was sitting on the bench.

DOWN – THE SPIDER HAS BEEN CAPTURED

It’s almost as like someone has captured Aaron Wan Bissaka in a glass and has thrown him out the window. After having a brilliant debut season, Wan Bissaka has started the new campaign like he’s had all his legs cut off. We all know AWB can’t attack but he always made up for it with his defensive game but today he was the biggest weakness. I need an abacus to count how many times Brighton had an opportunity at the back post and all that was down to our own AWB. Brighton targeted that right-hand side with lengthy crosses from the left and constant runs and that was why Brighton were so into the game. Whether it is Fitness or Match Sharpness or just confidence, something doesn’t seem right with Wan Bissaka and that needs to change ASAP.

DOWN – BIG GAME PLAYER, SMALL GAME FAILURE

There was a part of the first half where I thought to myself that Paul Pogba is one of our better players. Ever since that thought, he made mistake after mistake. Every time he had possession, he would either do a cheap skill that would get past a player or the more popular option in losing possession and causing our whole team to track back. Pogba is lacking match sharpness that is evident, but he needs to start performing in these so-called lesser games, so it makes his big game performance even more worthwhile.

DOWN – TOO MANY VACANT PERFORMANCES

The problem United have at the moment is individual performances. Mason Greenwood didn’t affect much of the game. Anthony Marital looked out of his depth. Marcus Rashford score but didn’t offer anything other than that. You can cope with one or even two players off form for a game but when you are hitting three four or five players who are weak then the whole team will underperform. Start getting the individual performances up then the team performances will follow.

DOWN – FREESTYLE FOOTY

Despite the summer from hell, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer seems to be the beacon for criticism over the past few weeks and some of the comments aren’t without merit. Against Palace, the team didn’t really look like they had a game plan and we just playing free roam football. Against Brighton, it was more of the same. Ole is a good coach but has been tactically unaware in the last couple of games and that needs to change if United are going to go places under his leadership.

UP – A MUCH NEEDED GOAL FOR A MUCH NEEDED RASHFORD

Marcus Rashford has had a rough time of it as of late and has been lacking the killer match sharpness he had before his spinal injury and again was poor against Brighton. However, when it came down to it, Rashford kept his cool and scored the best goal of the game to give United the lead. This goal will help his confidence which is critical especially at a crucial time for United.

UP – DAVE SAVES EPISODE #2

David De Gea wasn’t at fault for any of the goals against Palace and the case was the same against Brighton. With Henderson watching his every move, De Gea seems to be thriving since the added pressure and we are beginning to see the 2016 De Gea again. I want this Dave Saves Series to have at least 38 episodes.

UP – A WIN IS A WIN

At the end of the day, winning when you aren’t playing well is a sign of a good team and yes it was lucky about the penalty but United have the 3 points and Brighton don’t. We can now move on and focus on the tough fixtures coming up for Ole’s men.

What did you make of the win? Leave your thoughts below.