What Ruben Amorim received flawed as disastrous Man Utd crumble once more vs Brighton

Manchester United slipped to a disastrous defeat on Sunday afternoon as Ruben Amorim‘s side lost 3-1 to Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford.

Brighton found themselves 1-0 up on five minutes after Kaoru Mitoma timed his run in behind the United defence perfectly, taking the ball in stride before squaring to Yankuba Minteh who scored the Seagulls opener.

While United equalised on 23 minutes after Bruno Fernandes scored from the penalty spot following Carlos Baleba’s foul on Joshua Zirkzee, Amorim’s side failed to carve out any real opportunities in front of goal for the remainder of the game.

Brighton retook the lead after the break through Mitoma, before as disastrous error from Andre Onana gifted the game to the Seagulls when Georginio Rutter added a third on 76 minutes, ending the contest.

The result means United remain 13th in the Premier League, while Brighton moved up to ninth. And here are three things Ruben Amorim learned from the disappointing defeat…

Costly slow starts

Manchester United started both halves against Brighton slowly. On five minutes, they went 1-0 down when a pass in behind the United defence caught Harry Maguire out, allowing Kaoru Mitoma the chance to take the ball in stride, which he squared to Yankuba Minteh to fire the Seagulls in front.

It immediately put United on the back foot, forcing them into chasing the game. While they did recover when Bruno Fernandes fired home from the spot after Carlos Baleba fouled Joshua Zirkzee inside the area.

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But then in the second half they were almost immediately undone by Joao Pedro, who looked to have put Brighton in front once again only for his goal to be chalked off by VAR after Jan Paul van Hecke kicked Diogo Dalot’s foot. However, the Seagulls did take the lead on 60 minutes through Mitoma, without United really ever recovering.

They started slowly in both halves, and paid the price.

Attacking reinforcements needed

United need some attacking reinforcement, fast. They looked dreadful in front of goal once again against Brighton.

Joshua Zirkzee, while having improved in recent weeks following his first half substitution against Newcastle in December, does not look like the clinical forward United need.

Rasmus Hojlund’s development looks to have stalled and he has been poor this season. Alejandro Garnacho can’t find any consistency and Marcus Rashford looks set to be flogged too.

Amad Diallo has been a bright spark, but it’s a damning indictment on United’s attacking options they have to rely upon a 22-year-old winger who has only just broken into the starting XI under Amorim.

United need to add some goals to their attack – just how they do that in the age of PSR given how much they’ve spent on attackers in recent times is anyones guess.

It’s time to drop Andre Onana

Put simply, it’s time for Amorim to drop Andre Onana. The third goal United conceded was a travesty, with Onana practically gifting Brighton the game when Georginio Rutter scored for Brighton following his shocking mistake that saw him fumble a cross.

In the long-term, Altay Bayındır might not be the answer, but right now, he cannot be any worse than the Cameroonian goalkeeper, who right now is actively costing United points. It is just another example of yet more poor recruitment, and an expensive headache for Amorim and the club to have to deal with.