It was a long old day on Sunday to the Falmer Stadium in Brighton and back, but it was a good day, despite the result. United away days always are, good result, performance or not from the team and Sunday’s was of the worst. I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again, getting beat and losing football matches is part of football. You aim and hope to win every match, but you simply know it’s not possible and when you get beat you take it on the chin.
Sometimes though, you’re beaten by the better team and despite United’s efforts you’re just not good enough to win on the day. Or maybe United were the better team but we never took our chances and the opposition did and sneaked a win. Then there or those days, like Sunday, when United are truly awful all over the place, again something that happens, but when there is no effort or commitment from the players then we have a problem.
Defensively we were a shambles at the back in the first-half, no two-ways about, however when one of your team-mates is having a bad game, or even something as small as he’s out of position you’d expect your team-mate to back you up. There was none of that on Sunday and it was summed up in the first goal we conceded. In the build up to their goal, there is a least three players who are out of position covering their team-mates, however there is then no one covering for them. That is not acceptable.
Eric Bailly had an awful game, he knows that and we all know that, but for that first goal there was enough time for someone else in that team to get back in and cover his position. If they had, the ball would never have reached Glenn Murray. Once there is no team effort and backing up of your fellow players then we have problems and once that first goal went it, that was it. Game over.
We never recovered from and our heads went down and we never picked ourselves up again. Yes, we got a goal but let’s be honest, we were never in the game. Things must improve other Spurs will tear us apart at Old Trafford on Bank Holiday Monday.
As for the United away end, superb as always and even after the game, we had our half-an-hour of moaning but then you get on with it. Rightly so, we still had five or so hours of our sixteen hour round trip to go.
https://twitter.com/dannyfreeburn/status/1032007084840235008
Please also see our Brighton vs United – podcast
Next fixture: Spurs at home in the Premier League – Monday 27th August
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