Manchester Utd 1-0 Brighton

Manchester United 1-0 Brighton (Dunk og. 66)

A narrow win courtesy of a deflected shot seemed fitting for the sort of match this was, a drab, low-skilled affair. It was poor, with Mourinho’s admirable 4-4-2 team selection not resulting in free flowing attacking football. Still, Man United are now unbeaten at Old Trafford in 39 league and cup games. An impressive statistic, with our last home defeat coming against Manchester City in September 2016. Our next league visitors? City.

Instead of the dull football, the crowd was worthy of comment, with ‘It’s Carrick, y’know’ getting a hearty airing after the club captain made his heart issues public on Friday. After a smattering of it during Basel away, ‘Five Cantonas’ was also sung with gusto. It’s not even December yet, lads. The fans were much louder than usual today, probably helped by the passionate Brighton contingent relishing their trip to Manchester, because no ground confirms you’re at the big time more than Old Trafford.

They had a decent side to cheer on, mind. Chris Hughton has the newly-promoted southerners playing some good stuff in the relative safety of mid-table, and his team played some interesting stuff. In the early stages of the game Dutch international Davy Propper and his partner in crime Gross were at the heart of Brighton’s positive outlook. Both were comfortable driving forward with the ball and launch counters with balls towards the experienced Glenn Murray. Murray was a decent lone foil for Brighton, holding the ball up well. They were tough throughout and good in the air.
The main penetration came from the pacey Anthony Knockaert down the right hand side, but he was up against Ashley Young who tracked him back stride for stride and never showed him inside. Never was the Frenchman and lower league legend allowed to shoot from distance, with Smalling often out quick to close down the space.

At the other end United were ponderous and safe, I mean, four shots on target in the entire game tells its own story. In the first half, Pogba was spraying the ball around, always at the centre of things, looking in good touch, but he was almost getting too much of the ball with the players constantly passing to him when he was tightly marked or there were teammates better placed. One of the tiny problems with having such a dominant personality and player as Pogba is occasionally the players look for him to work his magic too often, to rely on him, even subconsciously. To be fair to the players, ‘give it to Pogba’ is as good a tactic I can think of for this United squad.

Mourinho lined up in a pretty flat 4-4-2 with Rashford twinned with Lukaku, presumably because he thought we could overwhelm Brighton, but credit must go to Propper and Gross who prevented United taking control of the midfield. They were helped by Matic though, who had a bit of a stinker, with heavy touches and lax passes galore, although the Serb duly showed his value to the side in the last 10 minutes with some smart defending.

We were the better team, but not creating many chances, because the front four just didn’t get much of the ball. Instead it was our converted wingers who provided the thrust and the width; It was Young who was taking players on and showing some flair, it was Valencia who was always available on the overlap. United were better when they switched to a 4-2-3-1 on the stroke of half-time, and almost straight away, new right-winger Rashford put a cross onto Lukaku’s head from two yards only to see it well saved by the Aussie keeper Matthew Ryan.

15 minutes of the second half passed with the only incident worth mentioning being Knockaert coming out second best in a challenge with Lindelof, staying down for ages, United not kicking the ball out, and then not giving the ball back when they do. Unreal mentality, and it got the crowd going again too. He got up and ran around soon after though, the prick.

On came Zlatan for the ineffectual Mata. I was saying Matic needed to be taken off as well, when the goal came, with Young buying space with some neat footwork before seeing his shot ricochet off Dunk and loop into the net. Oddly, we didn’t use that momentum to go for a second, and that, apart from a Zlatan shot after a brilliant one-two with Pogba, was rather that for our forward line.

Instead they scrapped around, fighting for the team. Lukaku was working brilliantly hard for the shirt, closing down players and chasing full backs down the wing. Go on lad. Lots of fouls from both teams - including a naughty late one by Duffy on Ibrahimovic – contributed to the low quality, and so Fellaini was sent on to stiffen up the midfield to try and check the Brighton moves.

It worked, and a rather crap game ended 1-0. I wouldn’t have minded missing that one, really. Still, it’s all about the three points, last year that probably would’ve ended in a draw, and with Spurs drawing at home to newly de-Pulised West Brom and Chelsea and Liverpool sharing the spoils in the evening game, United ended the day happily.

United (4-4-2) De Gea 6.5; Valencia 7.5, Lindelof 7.5, Smalling 7.5, Young 8; Mata 5 (Ibrahimovic 62, 6), Pogba 7.5, Matic 5.5, Martial 6.5 (Mkhitaryan 71, 5.5); Rashford 7 (Fellaini 80, 6), Lukaku 7.