Ahead of United's match against Brighton, the officially announced starting line-up was originally made by French centre-back Varane, with Lindlev as a substitute. However, after the start of the match, Varane's place was replaced by the Swedish iceman Lindlerv, who at the time officially said that Varane was ill. After the game, Lonnick also gave more detailed information, revealing that Varane was unable to compete because of "stomach problems".
The 28-year-old Varane suddenly felt stomach upset after the pre-game dinner, and due to the severe symptoms and unbearable pain, the Manchester United team doctor could not let him recover in time, so Varane directly withdrew from the competition list, Lindelof started, and the substitute centre-back was Phil Jones.
Lonnick explains: "After dinner and the team meeting, on the way from the hotel to Old Trafford, Varane had a problem with his stomach. We had hoped to alleviate his condition by taking medicine, but he was very uncomfortable, so we had to arrange for Lindlev to start."
Now, Varane has 4 days left to treat his stomach problem, and Sunday's appearance at Leeds United should not be a big problem. In his absence, Manchester United's old centre-back partners Maguire and Lindlof completed a clean sheet to help the team beat Brighton 2-0 and return to the top four of the Premier League. Lonnick said: "After 3 consecutive draws, this is a very important victory. There will be another game against Leeds United, which will also be very intense, they will maintain a high-paced football for 95 minutes, we need to recover and show good form at the Elam Road stadium on Sunday."
Against Brighton, Maguire's performance was significantly better than before, and most of the time he froze the opposing center Neil Mopai. However, Maguire still had defensive holes, and Manchester United's veteran Welbeck's header in stoppage time rushed to the top in front of him, narrowly drawing the game. In addition, in the first half Brighton also caused problems for De Gea through the speed of Jacob Moder and Bisuma, taking advantage of The weakness of Maguire's slow movement at his feet.
In the following matches, Lonnick will need to choose the main center-back combination of Varane, Maguire and Lindelof, but if nothing else, he will still stick to the bigger Varane partner Maguire.