Four things we learnt as United lose 1-3 to Brighton in hugely frustrating display

Manchester United welcomed Brighton and Hove Albion to Old Trafford, aiming to win two Premier League games on the bounce.

Andre Onana took up his usual spot between the posts with Harry Maguire coming in for Lisandro Martinez. Leny Yoro kept his place in spite of a poor showing versus Southampton and Matthijs de Ligt completed the back three.

Diogo Dalot returned from suspension and Noussair Mazraoui started at right wing-back.

Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo once again started in the middle of the park with Amad Diallo moving further forward after his hat trick on Thursday.

Bruno Fernandes started as expected and Joshua Zirkzee got the nod ahead of Rasmus Hojlund after a couple of positive showings from the bench lately.

Here are four things we learnt from the match.

United start poorly again at home

After the poor performance at home to Southampton on Thursday, United would have wanted to jump right out of the blocks today.

Ruben Amorim’s side have fallen behind in the first half against Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, Newcastle United and Southampton lately at Old Trafford.

After just five minutes Yankuba Minteh had already broken the United defensive line.

United responded midway through the first half with a Bruno Fernandes penalty but falling behind so often, so early at home must soon stop if the side are to create any sort of momentum in terms of positive results.

Team’s pressing is bearing fruit

The Red Devils are clearly still a major work in progress but slowly and steadily fans can see Amorim’s fingerprints over the team.

On Thursday against Southampton, Amad grabbed his hat trick with wonderful pressing to nick the ball off the defender’s toes and slot in his third.

Today a poor kick by Bart Verbruggen was closed down well and Joshua Zirkzee won a penalty that his captain cooly put away.

Amorim will undoubtedly still see much work left to do even in this regard and the overall objective will be to be more dangerous in attack with the ball than out of possession.

Nonetheless, the team and fans are seeing the rewards of working hard and honestly off the ball, often led by their electric star Amad Diallo.

Soft centre shows no sign of disappearing

While the pressing message is getting through, whatever they are doing on the training pitch isn’t making the team any harder to score against.

Old Trafford fans are getting used to their side wilting under pressure but the lack of concentration the defence regularly shows is incredibly worrying.

Brighton dominated the ball in the second half and scored their second on the hour mark.

The defence fell asleep as Kaoru Mitoma snuck in to restore the Seagulls’ lead.

Andre Onana also had much to answer for as he inexplicably left the ball when he probably should have come out and tried to collect the teasing cross.

Onana needs to be dropped

The Cameroonian keeper started the season strongly but his form has fallen off a cliff in the last month or so.

He has failed to impress in numerous outings but after the failure to deal with Brighton’s second cross, a calamitous moment saw United concede their third.

Under little pressure, Onana incredibly pushed the ball to Georginio Rutter, who gratefully passed the ball into an empty net.

Amorim’s side have numerous problems but the culture of constantly shooting themselves in the foot must be incredibly galling for the Portuguese coach.

With Altay Bayindir impressing against Arsenal in the FA Cup, perhaps he deserves a chance until the end of the season and this reopens the debate that the Red Devils will need to dip into the transfer market once more to solve their goalkeeping crisis.

Featured image Stu Forster via Getty Images

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