Manchester United suffered a shock defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion as Chris Hughton’s side scored three goals in the first half to put United on the back foot.
Jose Mourinho’s side could not find their way back in the game despite a late consolation spot-kick converted by Paul Pogba.
Here are the player ratings:
David de Gea: 5/10
De Gea was left perplexed with Glenn Murray’s clever finish for the first goal and couldn’t have done much for the rest either.
Ashley Young: 3/10
Young was quite wayward with his deliveries and struggled to cross the ball despite getting himself into promising positions. Defensively, he was suspect too and it should be noted that Brighton’s first two goals came from the right-side of the pitch.
Eric Bailly: 3/10
Bailly’s casualness was visible as he made an unnecessary, horrendous last-ditch tackle inside the box to gift Brighton a spot-kick just after Romelu Lukaku had scored a goal to reduce the Seagulls’ cushion of a two-goal lead. He didn’t look focused.
Victor Lindelof: 4/10
Lindelof was hailed as the best technical defender by Jose Mourinho ahead of the match, but the Swede’s inability to deal with physically dominating opponents was apparent yet again. He failed to recover and track back in time, and was positionally all over the place.
Luke Shaw: 7/10
Probably the best United player on the field, Luke Shaw continued his good form as he was probably the only one who showed the intent to press the opponents and charge up ahead to deliver quality service into the box. He sent in two crosses, completed four tackles and intercepted the ball twice.
Andreas Pereira: 5/10
Pereira looked composed and assuring but was kind of overawed after the chaos caused by the second goal. The lad needs more experience but was taken off in the halftime to inject more attacking threat.
Fred: 4/10
The Brazilian was overenthusiastic while passing, as he misplaced the passes and conceded possession quite cheaply a few times. Needs more time to get used to the pace of the Premier League.
Paul Pogba: 5/10
Pogba failed to control and dictate the tempo of the game, often finding himself trying a trick too many. He made some good deliveries to switch and spread the play but should have done better to take over the control of the proceedings, especially when the team was trailing by two goals.
Anthony Martial: 2/10
It is difficult to understand Martial’s contribution in the match, as the Frenchman was downright poor and faded after a bright start where he cut in and beat two Brighton defenders to take a misplaced shot. Thereafter, he was booked once for a reckless challenge, and that might be his only notable involvement as such.
Juan Mata: 2/10
Mata did not instil any energy, nor did he add any creativity from the flanks. His passes were uncharacteristically wayward and Mourinho took him off at halftime to introduce Marcus Rashford in his place.
Romelu Lukaku: 6/10
Lukaku always tried to involve himself by closing down the defenders and trying to link up with the other forwards by dropping down a bit more than he generally would have. Missed a glorious opportunity to open the scoring in the beginning, but made up for it with a well-finished headed goal.
Substitutes
Marcus Rashford: 5/10
Rashford showed intent to shift positions and try to work out something productive but his directness became predictable and it was fairly easy to defend against him.
Jesse Lingard: 6/10
He made some smart decoy runs but neither Pogba nor Fred could pick out the appropriate pass and hence Lingard’s efforts went in vain.
Marouane Fellaini: 6/10
The Belgian midfielder, just like Lingard, was doing the job asked out from him by imposing himself as a target man.
Stats via Whoscored
