Humiliation for Ralf as woeful United sunk by Brighton blitz

THREE decades after he went to university in these parts, Ralf Rangnick is still looking for answers. Answers for why the tune he orchestrates is so consistently awful and answers on just how low Manchester United must go before they bounce.

That certainly won’t come on his watch. He has only one more game in this woeful gig, and then it’s Erik ten Hag’s problem, so who knows what kind of send off Rangnick will be afforded by this gutless, shameless, witless bunch of chancers?

Which isn’t to excuse Rangnick before he whistles and skips off to Austria. Not one bit. He openly admitted after the match that the defeat was ‘humiliating’ and it’s strange to think that at one point things were going quite well under him, but that was a while back.

More recently? It’s five wins in 18 across the competitions, and that says nothing for the defeats, none of which looked quite so bleak as this. The 4-1 at Watford in November was bad, but this was worse.

Truly, they were as atrocious as Brighton were brilliant.

‘It is important to apologise to our fans,’ said Rangnick. ‘They came all the way from Manchester and we just weren’t good enough.

‘It was not only poor, it was extremely poor. At half-time the only good thing is it was only 1-0. We just weren’t good enough in defending as a team and we didn’t create enough chances.

‘It was a humiliating defeat and the second highest defeat in my career as a coach. It is not only the 4-0 it is how we played.’

The goals came from Moises Caicedo, who United tried to sign, then via Marc Cucurella, Pascal Gross and Leandro Trossard, with the last three scored in the opening 15 minutes of the second half.

Brighton, for all their style and quality, are hardly known for freescoring abandon but they could have had six or seven here.

United had a mind-numbing inability to perform the most elementary aspects of defending — see the first goal — and also their failure to show any pride in their work — see the second and third.

By the fourth, even the VAR fancied a laugh at their expense.

To think, Rangnick’s side had arrived here with the wind of a 3-0 win over Brentford in their sails. As such, he made no changes to his side, with Juan Mata given a second straight start behind Cristiano Ronaldo (pictured), who was stationed at the top of 4-2-3-1.

The upshot was nothing of value made it through to Ronaldo across the whole of the first half. When he did see possession, he was a shadow of himself, with one pass into touch, a dribble out of play and a free-kick that passed 10ft over the bar, all before he was given a yellow card for sliding in on Lewis Dunk. His mood matched the performance.

While his side-drama was playing out, Brighton were having a ball. The opening goal, which came after quarter of an hour, was rooted in desperately slack defending. The move had started with a punt forward and escalated when Alex Telles botched a clearance by heading vertically.

Gross then drove at the loose ball and a block rebounded it to Caicedo, outside the area. He sent a low shot of limited power back to goal that somehow outpaced the glacial reactions of Victor Lindelof and beat David de Gea. At half-time, Rangnick sought help through Fred and Edinson Cavani from the bench, but it was soon a rout.

The second goal originated with Trossard chasing an overhit cross with more enthusiasm than anyone in red, before pulling back for Cucurella.

He smashed into the slither of space between De Gea and his near post — no one had tracked his run, of course.

A moment later, Trossard teed up Gross, who skipped easily by Raphael Varane and rolled across De Gea. Trossard bundled in a fourth amid a suspicion of handball and offside, but nothing went United’s way. They deserved no better.

‘It is up there (with the best wins of his career),’ said Brighton boss Graham Potter, who is being considered by Tottenham as a replacement for Antonio Conte if the Italian leaves in the summer.

‘We have had to suffer a bit at home to say the least (after going eight without a home win) but we made up for it today in some ways.

‘It was a great performance and a fantastic result. Today was really special.

‘We were a little unfortunate not to add to the four.’

BRIGHTON (3-4-2-1): Sanchez; Veltman, Dunk, Cucurella; March (Lamptey 76), Bissouma, Caicedo, Trossard (Maupay 83); Gross, Mac Allister (Webster 65); Welbeck. Subs (not used): Duffy, Steele, Ferguson, Alzate, Offiah, Lallana. MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1): De Gea; Dalot, Lindelof, Varane, Telles; McTominay, Matic (Fred 46); Elanga (Cavani 46), Mata (Maguire ), Fernandes; Ronaldo. Booked: Dalot, Ronaldo. Subs (not used): Henderson, Fernandez, Jones, Wan-Bissaka, Lingard, Garnacho. Referee: Andy Madley.