The Premier League kicking things off in the correct way again as Yanited open up matchday 2 with their first away trip of the campaign.
It sees Erik ten Hag's side travel to a new-look Brighton.
We know that over the recent past, the Seagulls have had our number although in the last meeting, MUFC did come out on top after a 2-0 win. That was our last away game of last season and I suppose it's only fitting to have our first game on the road this season at the Amex as well.
This is going to be an interesting game.
Predicted Lineup
And straight away, we have a problem.
That is the XI I think the manager will go with and it is almost the exact same team that beat Fulham last week. The only change being Amad out and Garnacho in.
I know, I know, you're wondering where's Matthijs De Ligt, where's Joshua Zirkze?. Mate, I'm wondering about that as well.
I don't know, I just have a gut feeling that Erik ten Hag will stick with that side that got him the 3 points in game one. It was a winning side that did perform well, there were more pros than cons with that performance (at least for me) so I do sort of understand why he would stick with the same XI, if that's what he does.
But I disagree with that proposed lineup because I would like to see the Dutch pair of De Ligt and Zirkzee start. I believe they will make us a better team and while Harry Maguire was superb at Old Trafford last week, De Ligt just allows the defence and team to play in a different and better way.
He is quicker than Maguire, he is better on the ball, his reading of the game is good and we can push the defensive line higher because of this.
United do also look better with a striker in the side, even one a little unconventional like Zirkzee. This two false 9s thing isn't the way to go for me and I would rather Zirkzee in for Mason Mount.
However, for the trip to Brighton last season, ten Hag did use Scott McTominay as his false 9 on that occasion and start Rasmus Hojlund from the bench. Perhaps that's an inclination of how he might go tomorrow?
We would all be a lot more excited to see the new signings start just as we were for Noussair Mazraoui last week who put in a great performance on his debut. Erik ten Hag mentioned in his presser yesterday that Zirkzee will have gotten some extra confidence thanks to his debut goal. I think that if he were to bench him, that confidence may drop.
There were also reports that ten Hag has the idea to start off with De Ligt and Lisandro Martinez as the main centre-back pairing moving forward even when Leny Yoro is available. Why not do this as soon as possible?
This will allow De Ligt to get used to the team and league, as well as his team-mates to get used to him.
And can you imagine De Ligt and the Butcher as our CB pairing 💪.
Brighton may as well stay at home because we're going to take all 3 points.
We're going to lose now, aren't we?
Shit.
I'd also like to mention that I would prefer to see Amad start ahead of Marcus Rashford but let's be real, that ain't happening.
United Approach
I believe the manager will want to do something similar against Brighton that United did last week in terms of that high press.
While I would swap out Mount for Zirkzee - the league's joint-top scorer 😏 - I must admit that MM7 looked decent in that high press. His work rate is something that we all appreciate and he was a big part as to why we were so effectual at winning the ball back higher up the field and creating those chances in which we should've scored from, himself included.
Hopefully we've sharpened our finishing during training because if we did have these opportunities, we absolutely need to take them. We were lucky to get away with it against Fulham. We may not be at Brighton.
That is part of the reason as to why I think he could go with the same lineup again.
That high press will have to be good because we know that traditionally, Brighton are very good on the ball and playing out from the back. They find it quite easy to do this so we need to be very careful that we don't get bypassed when trying to press otherwise we could find ourselves in trouble.
As we saw multiple times last season and occasionally against Fulham, our midfield can be found out due to sluggishness and being run through easily before the opponent is at our defence.
This is why it's important to have that high line so that we can retrieve the ball or at least close down Brighton quicker if they happen to bypass our press.
The higher line will cause us to be closer in terms of attack, midfield and defence and not create that massive gap between the rest of the team up front and the back line which tended to sit a little deeper.
We know that Casemiro has improved in the last two games (Man City and Fulham) but still needs a way to go when it comes to his defensive work and overall energy.
Going forward, he is one of our most threatening players giving us more reason to play higher up the field as he is wont to be a part of the attack and vacate his CDM position. Having the line higher will close that space in midfielder whenever the Brazilian ventures forward.
This approach could be redundant because Erik ten Hag has opted for a more conservative style whenever playing away from home and especially against the better teams.
Playing deep and hitting on the break is something I wouldn't be surprised to see which would explain why the likes of Maguire and Rashford could be selected.
The England defender is a lot more comfortable when playing on the edge of his box and not required to pass out from the back as much. Rashford also appears a lot better when running in behind opposition's defences. Brighton do like to push their back line higher up at times so it could work in Erik ten Hag's favour.
Brighton
The Seagulls are flying high at the top of the league after a resounding 3-0 win at Everton. It was new manager Fabian Hurzeler's first official match in charge and what a way to begin his time at Brighton.
Hurzeler is also the youngest manager in the league at 31-years-old.
Damn, that's only a couple years older than me 😐.
Goals by Karou Mitoma, Danny Welbeast and Simon Adingra gave Hurzeler's side the 3 points. That game also saw assists from two of their new recruits in Yankuba Minteh and Mats Wieffer.
So it's not only our new signings that shone brightly on opening day.
It's actually a little difficult to truly gauge where Brighton are at so early on in the season even more so with new signings and a new manager. It's never easy to truly grasp what he's trying to do and how they will play.
At Everton, they had 62% possession, more shots, more on target, more touches and more passes, with a lot of these being synonymous with the Seagulls' style of play.
On the other hand, we also know that Everton do like to play that more pragmatic, old school type football which would've allowed Brighton to play how they wanted.
One thing that could help them out though, is if we do approach the game in a similar manner to Everton. This deep line, camping on the edge of the box will invite the pressure and allow players like Mitoma and Minteh to go down the line and put in crosses, something that we're notorious for defending badly.
They could also invert and ask their full-backs to overlap which could create problems as well. With Dalot probably out of position at left-back and new boy Mazraoui at right-back, I'm sure that Brighton boss Hurzeler will look to try and take advantage of this.
Recent Meetings
In the past few years, Brighton have had United's number and have become a bit of a bogey side for MUFC.
They were also the team to hand Erik ten Hag his first defeat as United boss which came in his first game which was also at Old Trafford. They also beat us at home at the start of last season and had a run of four straight wins before United finally managed to get one over the Seagulls at the end of last season.
Last five results:
- Brighton 4-0 Utd
- Utd 1-2 Brighton
- Brighton 1-0 Utd
- Utd 1-3 Brighton
- Brighton 0-2 Utd
Prediction
I have a sneaky feeling that we will get over the line in this one. I'm going for a 1-2 win to give us 6 points and put us back on top of the league, where we belong.
I also think that this could be a good time to face Brighton as early on in the season, team's are still a little sluggish and not up to speed. They probably could use with a couple more games to properly integrate their new signings as well which could help United out.
Anything is possible though. Let's just hope we can get the W.
Background Image: Alejandro Garnacho in Man Utd training | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)