SIX OF THE BEST FROM CITY AS UNITED FLOP
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, 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. 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.
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. The ball was worked nicely down the left from Gaetan Bong to Solly March and when it was delivered to the near post Murray pulled away from Lindelof and guided his finish expertly across David de Gea with a sublime prod of his right foot.
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 to Duffy who swept it home.
On the touchline, Mourinho clapped his hands and called out with all the conviction of a man
watching his dog disappear down Brighton beach.
United never really look dead and buried simply because of the club badge on their chest. Sure enough, a hopeful swipe by Luke Shaw 10 minutes before halftime bounced up kindly for Lukaku to head in.
Game back on? In theory yes, but United blew their own toes off good and proper just before the interval when Bailly fouled Gross unnecessarily and the German drove the penalty into the roof of the net off De Gea’s legs.
United needed something in the second half and they needed it quickly. What they got was Marouane Fellaini, freed from the bench to harass and hound. It was a ploy as desperate as it was familiar but here it didn’t work.
United had no rhythm and no cohesion and subsequently made no progress. As time wore on they looked increasingly disparate and when they gathered at a break of play near the touchline with 15 minutes to go Mourinho looked utterly at a loss as to what to say to them.
Is Mourinho the problem here? Not solely. Things started to go awry the moment 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. BRIGHTON (4-4-2): Ryan 7; Montoya 7, DUFFY 8, Dunk 6 (Balogun 20min 7), Bong 7.5; Knockaert 7, Stephens 7.5, Propper 7, March 7.5; Gross 7.5 (Kayal 90), Murray 7.5 (Locadia 90). Subs not used: Button, Bissouma, Jahanbakhsh, Bernardo. Scorers: Murray 25, Duffy 27, Gross (pen) 44. Booked: Murray. Manager: Chris Hughton 8. MANCHESTER UNITED (4-3-3): De Gea 5.5; Young 5.5, Lindelof 4.5, Bailly 5, Shaw 6; Fred 6, Pereira 6 (Lingard 46, 6), Pogba 6; Mata 5.5 (Rashford 46, 6), Lukaku 6, Martial 6 (Fellaini 60, 6). Subs not used: Grant, Smalling, Herrera, McTominay. Scorers: Lukaku 34, Pogba (pen) 90+5. Booked: Martial. Manager: Jose Mourinho 5.5. Referee: Kevin Friend 7. Attendance: 30,592.