It was the worst all around performance of the season for Manchester United, and blame can be found almost everywhere in their 1-0 loss at Brighton & Hove Albion. Jose Mourinho employed an odd strategy with tactics very difficult to understand against a side that only ensured survival into next season’s top flight by pulling the big upset over United last night.
Aside from the always stellar work of goalkeeper David de Gea, it’s difficult to find any thing, from the players or manager, positive that one can take away from this pathetic showing.
Mourinho rotated his squad after beating Arsenal last weekend, providing potential opportunities for fringe players to maybe earn a first team position in the FA Cup final. However, no one seized the opportunity, and Mourinho found the dismal showing to be the fault of his bit players.
“It was not good enough. The players who replaced others did not perform at a good level and, when individuals do that, it is difficult for the team to play well,” Mourinho said after making six changes to his lineup.
A consistently re-occurring storyline this season has been Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and why other forwards don’t receive more playing time. Many have wondered why Romelu Lukaku is almost always the first team choice at striker. Mourinho said that last night’s defeat answers that question.
“Maybe now you will not ask me why A, B and C do not play so much. People always ask: ‘Why always Lukaku?’ Well, now they know why always Lukaku, and why always this player and why always that player. We are probably not as good as people think we are individually,” said Mourinho.
“I knew what was going to happen, and I told them, but that is what we got. Brighton had one target, to get the point and celebrate their Premier League survival. Our target was to get points to help us finish second and they clearly showed that, for them, it is more important for them to stay in the Premier League than for us to finish second. They showed it from the first minute and we didn’t show that.
“We were not able to motivate ourselves.”
It was such a poor display that United club legend, and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville delivered what might be his most scathing critique of his former club yet. That really says something given just how scathing his past critiques have been. Neville also believes that last night’s dismal showing could prove to be the end of the line for some players at Old Trafford, as he believes Mourinho has now run out of patience with them.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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