In the 18th round of the Premier League, Manchester United welcomed Brighton at Old Trafford, in the second half C Ronaldo broke the deadlock with his personal ability, Anthony Erlanga forced the opponent Lewis Dunk to stain red, Bruno Fernandez scored another goal in stoppage time, and the Red Devils finally won 2-0, surpassing West Ham by two points to return to the fourth position in the league. However, Arsenal are only 4 points behind Manchester United in 3 games, Wolves are 6 points behind in 2 games, and Tottenham Hotspur is 7 points behind in 3 games, all of which have the theoretical possibility of catching up with Manchester United.
Manchester United temporarily replaced Lindelof in the original starting lineup of Varane, the official statement is that the French centre-back sudden illness. De Gea town defended the goal, with Dioggu Dalo, Lindelof, Maguire and Luke Shaw forming the defence, McTomine, Fred and Fernandez forming the midfielder and Erlanga, Ronaldo and Sancho joining up in the front.
Lonnick explained the reasons for rotating midfielder Pogba and striker Marcus Rashford: "Paul (Pogba) and Marcus (Rashford) have played two games in a row, Paul has just returned from injury and just experienced a game three days ago, so this is a normal rotation. It's a very important game, and like every other game, we have to show our good side, the beautiful side, a bit like Dr. Two-Faced, and today we have to keep a beautiful face throughout the game, like the first half of the last 3 games."
Brighton countered after the opening, suppressing United's 70% possession of the ball, and in the 5th minute, De Gea saved Modell's small angle push. United immediately counter-attacked, C Ronaldo's heel clever pass to Sancho, whose left rib shot was also blocked by the goalkeeper. Brighton had the ball in their possession and United had to wait for an opportunity to counter-attack, with De Gea already making two saves in the first 20 minutes.
Manchester United then arranged for Fernandez to move forward, the formation became 4231, and many attacking opportunities were recovered, but neither side created another opportunity to shoot the goal, and the scene was glued. In the 39th minute, Brighton's Feltman crossed from the right to create a good opportunity, Modell's header went straight to the dead corner, and De Gea completed the save to defuse the situation. Brighton went on a back-to-back attack, slightly off the left upright than Suma's long-range shot.
In the first half, the two sides achieved nothing, and the 0-0 score triggered boos from the audience. It can be summed up this way, the performance of Manchester United in the first 45 minutes was: the front was rotten, the backfield De Gea. In the 50th minute of the game, Cristiano Ronaldo broke the deadlock with his personal ability, McTomine and Fernandez teamed up to cut off the ball at Bisuma's feet, C Ronaldo got the ball and suddenly got up in the 5-man bag clip, the ball went straight into the bottom right corner of the goal, Manchester United led Brighton 1-0.
Cristiano Ronaldo broke a six-game goal drought, his 15th goal of the season in all competitions, as the Portuguese superstar rushed to the west stand and slid to his knees in celebration.
Manchester United took advantage of the situation to launch a fierce rush, Brighton centre-back Dunk made another mistake in the backfield, was snatched by Erlanga, he came out too late to put down the Swedish fast horse, the referee originally showed a yellow card, at the prompt of the VAR video assistant referee, replaced by a red card directly sent Dunk, Manchester United took the lead and got the advantage of playing one more person.
United finally controlled the rhythm of the game, C Ronaldo almost scored twice, Fernandez crossed from the left, and Ronaldo's header was lifted off the line by goalkeeper Robert Sanchez. In the 71st minute, Ronaldo cut off the goalkeeper's pass in front of him, and he selflessly crossed to try to repay the favor, but Fernandez's push was magically saved by the goalkeeper.
Lonnick replaced Pogba and Fred came off. Pogba immediately after coming on the pitch made a shot and a good pass, improving United's organizational skills. B Fei once again sent a superb cross, but unfortunately C Ronaldo's header was deflected. Brighton narrowly equalised with a long-range shot, Modell fired a foot-hanging shot near the left-hand line and the ball crossed De Gea to hit the crossbar and pop up.
Marcus Rashford and Tres came on as benches at the same time, removing Erlanga and Sancho, with Ronnick intent on strengthening the defence and increasing the counter-attack. Fernandez's powerful blast was saved by goalkeeper Sanchez. Brighton still threatened to fight back with one less man, and Welbeck received a cross from the right and flicked his head into the goal, but fortunately it was high.
In the final moments of the game, United quickly drove a free kick from the back, Pogba passed the ball to Fernandez, who drove straight in, shook the goalkeeper and pushed the empty goal, manchester United sealed the victory 2-0. It was Fernandez's eighth Premier League goal of the season and the second goal United scored with set pieces.
United have lost two of their first three Premier League games against Brighton, but have recently won six straight against the Seagulls. And Brighton has never won manchester United away from home in all competitions, with 14 wins, 2 draws and 12 losses, including the top league away dream theater has lost 5 consecutive games. In fact, Manchester is the sad place for Brighton, facing Manchester United and Manchester City in 20 times, the team has not won 3 draws and 17 defeats, and the record against Manchester City is only better than Hull City (24 games without a win).
Prior to this round, Brighton had tied for the fewest away games this season with Manchester City, scoring a total of 19 points with 4 wins, 7 draws and 1 loss, and only one point less than last season's home total, and almost certainly broke the record for the highest number of points in the history of the team set in 2020/21 (20 points). And this defeat, Brighton is not at a disadvantage in the away scene, although the second half has been playing one less person for a long time, the possession rate is still five or five with Manchester United.
From a technical and tactical perspective, Brighton are the ones who played better in this game, especially in the first half, and their sporting attacking organization beat Manchester United. The Reds can only play some coordination after they are numerically superior, and the rest of the time, they mainly rely on pressing and making mistakes in the backcourt. It can be said that the Seagulls lost on the lack of personal strength of the players, and Manchester United just relied on the inspiration of the stars to determine the outcome of the game.
Lonnick's tactical fine-tuning in the second half also had a significant impact on the trend of the game, he arranged for players to strengthen the intensity of the front court, it was the positive pressing in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Brighton did not adapt to the changes in Manchester United, the Red Devils forced the opponent to make two fatal mistakes in their own half in 81 seconds, creating a goal and a red card, which became a turning point.
Although the 2-0 score seemed like a complete victory, in fact, United won a very thrilling victory, and Ronnic's celebratory action when Fernandez pressed the whistle to score said it all.
At the moment, United want not the scene, but 3 points, so the result of the 2-0 win over Brighton is ideal. However, the away team with one less person is not completely in a passive beating situation on the scene, and the Red Devils' home win is so reluctant, which reflects the big problems of Lonnick's team, especially the overall offensive and defensive organization can be said to be a mess.
Unfortunately, this is probably a problem that cannot be solved this season, and Manchester United can only try to achieve better results through various on-the-spot adjustments.