Scouting Manchester United’s Opponents: What Did We Learn From Brighton’s Opening Loss?

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Manchester United opened the new season the only way they were expected to – with a win against Leicester at Old Trafford. Now, the round two will see them travel to Brighton. Another three points are expected, especially after the media “drama” regarding Paul Pogba’s future and reported feud with Jose Mourinho.

Of course, it seems like all of that has been bloated reports, or as some might feel ready to say – fake news. Nevertheless, the next match is three days away and we will be looking at how Manchester United’s next rival had played in their first match of the season.

Brighton and Hove Albion lost 2-0 against Watford at Vicarage Road. Javi Gracia’s side scored through Roberto Pereyra’s brace, securing a simple win. Brighton never really looked like a team that was going to score.

Still Waiting For The New Signings

Chris Hughton’s side brought in many new players this summer. Some of them, like Bernardo started the match, while Alireza Jahanbakhsh was on the bench and Florin Andone was left out of the matchday squad. Bernardo, the left-back that arrived from Leipzig was unlucky that he had to switch sides early on, while Jahanbakhsh was still not completely ready to be the first choice at right wing.

Yves Bissouma, had a good game on the left flank after coming on in the last half hour, occasionally showing why everyone is expecting so much from him at Brighton, but was mostly isolated to do something more than a flashy dribble here and there. Brighton will need to be patient until all of their new numerous signings fit in properly.

Neutralising Pascal Gross

This is what most sides try to do when playing against Brighton. They started in a 4-4-1-1 formation where the German playmaker was the only attacking midfielder, playing behind Glenn Murray. However, Watford really managed to neutralize him as much as possible. Gross made just 21 passes from such an advanced position and his average position with the ball was higher than that of Murray which did not help either.

With the German being mostly out of the game, Brighton had troubles creating chances. They made just four shots and while three of them came from the inside of the box, none of them were actually dangerous. None of them even went on target. Brighton were incoherent and Gross played poorly. Apart from this, Gross should be also looked at during set-pieces, as he is known as the dead ball master, which the Premier League had seen last season.

Troubles At Right-Back

Brighton started with Bruno at right-back, the 37-year old Spaniard. When he had to be subbed after 26 minutes, Bernardo had to move inwards and act occasionally as a right-back and sometimes as the right of the three centre-backs, that did not help either. Having in mind that Alexis Sanchez will be playing on United’s left flank, it is easy to imagine Brighton could have troubles in this area.

Brighton will be expected to start once more in a 4-1-4-1, in a defensive block with two banks of four. Florin Andone might start to offer more energy than the 34-year old Murrray.

However, none of this should be too troubling for Man United. They sometimes have issues with teams playing with a deep, condensed block, but Brighton can be broken down.

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