The Seagulls fly to Old Trafford and have become quite the bogey side for United. Every time we face them, we seem to be out-performed in all facets of the game.
Brighton are also doing much better than us and will be looking to continue their good form over the Red Devils at Old Trafford this time round as well.
Both sides came off of good wins in their last matches so will be coming into this one with positivity.
Ruben Amorim though, needs the points more than his opposite number Fabian Hurzeler.
Should be an interesting game. As always.
Predicted Lineup
I don't see Amorim making too many changes to his side that got the routine win over Southampton.
Yes. Routine.
🤣.
Onana keeps his spot and why shouldn't he after those saves that pretty much kept us in the game.
I've brought Maguire back in for Yoro who had a bit of a nightmare against the Saints. Maguire, De Ligt and Martinez have been our best centre-back trio and against a tough opponent, I doubt that Amorim will be looking to take risks.
As you can see, Dalot returns at left wing-back but takes the place of Mazraoui rather than the Moroccan moving back to the right and Amad as a CAM. I just feel that our hat-trick hero is more threatening off the wing than as a number 10.
Ugarte and Mainoo keep their spots as the pair did have nigh on half a game off after their early substitutions on Thursday. However, with Mainoo, he looked way off it as he was one of the worst players on the field resulting in that halftime change. Could Collyer, who has impressed in training according to the manager, come in ahead of the number 37?
Bruno and Garnacho to start again but Amorim could move Amad in place of Garnacho - who will go to the bench - and put Mazraoui on the right. As I'd like Amad to stay as a RWB, I'd rather start Garnacho which allows the manager to keep his best player in his best position. This also gives a much-needed rest to Mazraoui who looks a bit dead.
What I though would happen in the previous match was to see Zirkzee replace Hojlund from the start. Given how the game went, that should've happened. As it didn't then though, I believe it will happen in this match.
Zirkzee deserves to start after his recent performances. Hojlund could also do with time on the bench.
Approach
This is a hard game to call in terms of what I think United will do. Amorim will look to play like we did at Liverpool as that was the benchmark for the season.
While the win at Arsenal last week was awesome with 10 men, I don't think we were anywhere near as good as we were at Anfield when we had 11. We just looked way off the pace again and Arsenal were controlling the game.
The possession we had wasn't enough nor sustainable but after the sending off, we saw a very dogged and determined United indicating this shift in mentality which needs improvement, perhaps even more than the style of play.
The MUFC boss will want a combination of what he saw in those matches: being good and calm in possession, ability to control the game, not give too many chances away, have that fight and energy, and we create chances as we managed against Liverpool.
That would be the ideal game and one where I believe we could get the desired win.
I purposefully left out the win over Southampton because that was an utterly diabolical performance. By the time Amad saved us with that 12 minute hat-trick, we should've lost if not for Onana.
What we saw in that win was who we truly are: unreliable and untrustworthy.
To do what we did at Arsenal and LFC and to follow that up with that performance over the worst team in PL history at home was completely unacceptable, but unsurprising.
It was so us.
Play anything like that and we might as well give Brighton the 3 points now.
The tempo from the start was lacking as there was none, the energy until those final 10 minutes was terrible, the sloppiness in possession was clear to see, we were passed through like a hot knife through butter, and didn't create enough in attack.
We know that starts are always important and that the first goal is key especially when it comes to United.
In our last eight league games, United scored the first goal just once which was Martinez's strike at Anfield. We only won two of those matches while drawing one and losing the other five. 16 of the goals conceded in that time saw 6 being scored in the first half by the opposition.
Scoring the first goal is not something we do often and when we concede first, the chances are we do lose. In Brighton's last five league encounters, they did score the first goal in three of them.
United's midfield was overrun in the last game as Mainoo was super flat and Ugarte had to cover a lot of ground. Both were taken off early against Southampton.
We were nowhere near good enough in the centre of the park which is why they had so much joy. This is a reason I could see Collyer come in.
I just want to see more of a tempo from United than anything. Should we start off flying and keep it going all game, I believe we will win.
We know that this team have the ability to keep the ball and create chances but it's about whether we are on it or not.
Amorim has developed more of a steel in this team but that works in certain games and situations but when you're at home against an opponent that you should be beating, you don't necessarily want to see that steel and toughness as we'd prefer to see good football which is something the manager acknowledges that the style of play has not been at the standard required.
But what he does have at the moment is a man in red hot form: Amad.
After his game-saving late hat-trick last time out and overall brilliant form he's shown under Amorim, the Portuguese will be looking at the Ivorian Messi to once again, be his man.
Amad has 6 goals and 5 assists under Amorim in all competitions and also scored in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.
Hopefully he can continue his good form.
Form
Our form obviously looks a little better after that win but it still isn't great.
We also moved from 15th to 12th after our 3-1 win but that, still isn't great. If we win again and Brentford drop points against Liverpool, we could go into 11th. We are so bad that even a win could see us remain in the same spot or not even get out of the top half. Or the worst-case scenario, go down the table 😬.
We are also 5 points behind our opponents, 26 for United and 31 to Brighton.
In Ruben Amorim's 10 league games our form doesn't make for great reading.
We've only won three games under the Portuguese and picked up two draws. The other five have been defeats including three in a row at home and three in a row without scoring.
Beating Southampton 3-1 at least gave us some respite from that although in that game, things weren't looking great for a long time.
United have scored 14 and conceded 17 since Amorim took over. That isn't the best of records either.
MUFC's form in Amorim's time in charge puts us in 14th in the table with just 11 points so far. Only five teams have conceded more in this time as well.
The home form did improve as we jumped to 11th from 14th in the home table after Thursday night's win. Our form at Old Trafford is finely balanced with fives wins, one draw and five losses after 11 games.
Some progress at least. Time for some consistency.
Brighton
As for the Seagulls, they seem to always be doing relatively well every season even when they sack managers and sell their best players. The recruitment and running of operations at Brighton is something that United should look at.
However, Hurzeler's team have been in indifferent form of late as while they haven't lost any of their last five, they did have four draws in a row before their last match saw them win 2-0 at Ipswich.
They are 9th in the table with seven wins, 10 draws (the most in the league) but with just four defeats which is amongst the fewest. This indicates that they may not win as many as they would like but they make sure they don't lose.
Brighton also concede almost as much as they score as their goal difference is at 3 after 32 scored and 29 let in. Their total of 31 points puts them firmly in the top 10.
We know what Brighton are all about in terms of their style and as I said, regardless of who's in charge or who's on the team sheet, they still play in the same manner.
Despite a formation change of using four at the back compared to three in the past, the manner of their play is still one of the best in the league.
Joao Pedro and Danny Welbeck are also two forwards that will cause us problems and between them have 11 goals in the league.
Brighton are also not bad on the road as they sit 7th in the away table, one spot higher than champions City.
They have four wins, four draws and three losses from their 11 games giving them a total of 16 points, 6 more than United.
Recent Meetings
As I said, Brighton have had our number in recent years and especially at Old Trafford. It has become an all too happy hunting ground for the Seagulls.
In the last six league encounters, Brighton have won five! losing just the one which was the final game of last season for both sides as United defeated them 2-0 in what was former manager Roberto De Zerbi's final game in charge.
Those six games have seen Brighton score 10 while United have netted just 5. Their last two trips to Old Trafford were also convincing wins, 2-1 and 3-1 last season.
The last time we did beat them at home was when a Cristiano Ronaldo inspired performance led us to a 2-0 win in 21/22 and if I remember correctly, Brighton were all over us in that match as well. David de Gea having to produce another one of his trademark game-saving performances.
Prediction
Honestly, this is one where I'm very confused about.
We obviously have some momentum from the previous three matches even if the performances have not been great. But still undefeated in 2025 amounts to nothing as we know we cannot trust this team as we don't know what we're going to get.
Brighton are also a good side and from that recent history, usually beat us and beat us comfortably. On the other hand, they do draw a lot of games.
I could see another this time round as well. 1-1 or 2-2 is what I think but really, this game that could be anything.
Background player image: Amad | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)