UNCERTAIN AND VULNERABLE

United now only a big club in name

AT the end there was a roar but it was not the loudest one this stadium has ever heard. There was joy and celebration but no disbelief, no sense that this was a once in a lifetime moment. Brighton had beaten Manchester United and who was really that surprised?

This is the reality for United under Jose Mourinho. This is the new state of things.

Mourinho — with the help of the two managers who passed before him — has built a United team to be respected but not feared. The aura has gone, replaced by a sheen of uncertainty and vulnerability.

This, as strange as it sounds, is a United team waiting to be beaten by anyone with the courage to rock up and have a real go. Here on the south coast, Brighton rocked up and rolled United out of town in a hurry.

What a day for Brighton. A big performance and a big result against a big club. Forget the faux narrowness of the score line. Chris Hughton’s team were superior by more than a single goal.

But what a day for United, too. For Mourinho and his aimless, ambling group of players this was at the very best a wake-up call and at the very worst a warning of how things will be for the foreseeable future.

The Premier League has changed on the watch of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino and Mourinho’s United have not changed with it.

The important goals here all came in the first half. Brighton scored a quick-fire double through Glenn Murray and the outstanding Shane Duffy and, after Romelu Lukaku had pulled a goal back for United, Hughton’s team extended their lead again through a Pascal Gross penalty.

But while they were the highlights, the most telling period was actually the second half.

This was when we expected United — wounded and angry — to come charging back into the game in search of goals and pride.

However, this team does not have enough fibre for that. Occasionally it can happen, as it did at Manchester City last season. But that was freakish while what we saw here was more representative of this vastly diminished football club.

United won a penalty in injury time and Paul Pogba scored it. But don’t be fooled for United were dreadful in the second half, a period that said everything about their modern failings. United tried to gather themselves but could not. The defensive partnership of Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof was abysmal. Mourinho chose them so no wonder executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward is wary of buying him another.

Elsewhere, United were pretty feckless against the neatness and sharpness of Brighton’s play. Hughton’s team played to a plan while United made it up as they went along.

Red passes disappeared out of play as Mourinho sighed and waved his arms. Occasionally he appealed for calm but nobody was listening.

So United lost and that looked likely from the moment Murray scored first for Brighton in the 25th minute.

United needed to respond but did not. A corner from the left two minutes later was not cleared properly and when Anthony Knockaert diverted the ball towards Duffy eight yards out, the big defender killed it deftly with one foot and swept it in with the other.

Is Mourinho the problem here? Not solely. Things started to go awry the moment Sir Alex Ferguson left five years ago. But the manager sets the tone for players to follow and Mourinho is currently dragging this group in the wrong direction.

Manchester United. Currently a big club only in name.