Man Utd 1-3 Brighton (Fernandes pen 23′ | Minteh 5′, Mitoma 60′, Rutter 76′)
OLD TRAFFORD — Andre Onana is an easy target, as goalkeepers are when they fail in the basic function of wrapping two hands on the ball. The more painful point for Ruben Amorim is that this match did not turn on one embarrassing mistake.
Manchester United were second best and losing before Onana’s latest calamity. Six home defeats and counting, five by three goals, is a forbidding telemetry that holds all the clues.
Equally that does not absolve Onana. As fallible as any United keeper since Massimo Taibi, the Cameroonian is one of the many fundamental issues Amorim must resolve if United are to become plausible anytime soon.
Another is the core element on which this great club was built and which remains entirely absent, any semblance of attack. This lack was painfully evident on the afternoon the club marked the passing of its finest goal scorer, Denis Law.
The piped tribute before kick-off was suitably moving but any idea the Lawman’s spirit might be at large among the current crop was dashed inside five minutes, all the time it took for United to capitulate. Again.
Boos greeted the final whistle. It could have been worse, the stadium was a third empty by then. Clearly the supporters are running out of patience. This has a feeling of hopelessness and desperation about it, with no clear solution in sight. How long before the finger is pointed at Amorim? It seems fair to raise the question of his culpability.
The systems junkie’s system is contributing only doubt and fallibility. It seems perverse to continue when the team is palpably failing. The draw at Anfield and a penalty success at Arsenal cannot offset performances at home that continue to spiral.
In this tumultuous period in the history of United it appears that arriving on time, standing up straight and facing in the right direction is all that is required of opponents to prosper. That would be a disservice to Brighton, who romped home here in second gear.
At least Joshua Zirkzee, starting for the first time since the Newcastle debacle in December, stood his ground. You both hear and see him coming, a cataclysmic presence waiting to discover what his feet are going to do.
The associated benefit of his style is the inability of the opponent to make sense of the cues. He had certainly earned the right to start following a cameo against Southampton that changed the vibe entirely. Of course, this being United at Old Trafford, they didn’t make the most of it.
If there were a champagne moment award it might have gone to Zirzkee for his barrelling defence of the ball whilst backing in to the centre half and the wriggling escape that followed it. The Old Trafford audience cheered wildly; micro-victories about all they can expect.
The challenge for Zirkzee is to thread these moments together, to take hold of a game in a manner of which his size and skillset suggests he is capable. In another similar exchange he turned a pass from Manuel Ugarte into a rapid counter, sprinting out of defence to set Diogo Dalot clear.
His willingness to show for the ball and make positive use of it at least offers Amorim something on which to build. And were Amorim to find a way to coach the chaos out of him, there might be a player in there. United were certainly grateful for his pirouette in the box that drew the penalty for the equaliser.
When Law arrived here in 1962 United were in need of ignition. The King dealt in the most valuable currency of all, goals. This United don’t know where their next one is coming from. And at the other end, Onana cannot be relied upon to do the basics. What a mess.
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