Manchester United did well in their first two matches of the new season, against Manchester City in the Community Shield and then in a 1-0 win against Fulham in the Premier League curtain-raiser. But the third match of the campaign brought a first loss, as Erik Ten Hag’s side came back from Brighton empty-handed, following a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Seagulls.
We wrote after the match what were the initial thoughts after that loss, but now we will have a slightly closer look into some of the numbers and underlying metrics which could tell us more about the Saturday match at the Amex Stadium.
The Expected Goals Story
The final scoreline pretty closely follows the final expected goals numbers, according to Fbref. Brighton finished the match at 2.1xG, while United had accumulated 1.4xG. But what the expected goals cannot tell you is all the near misses United had that did not count towards this metric. Most notably, there is the disallowed goal from Alejandro Garnacho, which would surely get a huge score here, considering it was an open goal situation, but Joshua Zirkzee’s goal-line touch of the ball meant VAR was correct to rule out the goal.
There was also the disallowed goal from Marcus Rashford in the first half, but what United should be worried is just three shots on target from 11 shots taken. Having 0.13 xG per shot is not bad at all, but United’s finishing was lacking as well as it was against Fulham. But this time the Devils were punished. Brighton had 14 shots, average worth of each was 0.15, and both of their goals came from close range when the goalscorers were left way too open to finish. That ultimately made the difference.
Minteh Troubles United’s Left Side
Danny Welbeck scored the opener, Joao Pedro the match-winning goal, but it was Yakuba Minteh who also stole the attention. The Gambian right winger managed to create lots of problems at United’s left side. From the 46 touches he had for 90 minutes, 12 came happened inside of United’s penalty area and he was always trying the high risk-high reward moves. While only one of his six tackles were successful, Minteh had enough space to note seven carries of the ball into United’s penalty area and created further two chances for his teammates. Yes, he ended the match without a goal or assist to his name, but he was giving United plenty of things to think about.
Rashford Struggles Continue
Marcus Rashford played for 64 minutes against Brighton and there is a reason for it. Once again, United’s star player was anonymous, he failed to do much and be a real threat to the opposition. Apart from the situation in which he scored from an offside position, he had a total of just 22 touches of the ball, just seven of which came in the final third of the pitch, where he should be most dangerous. He had one successful take-on from four attempts, he made no shots, he did not create a single opportunity for teammates and just one of his passes was completed in the final third of the pitch. Just seeing all these numbers, you would know Rashford was once again far from the performance he is expected to put out regularly.
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