MANCHESTER UNITED hit a new low on Sunday when Ruben Amorim branded this current team as the worst in the club's history.
A harrowing, humiliating 3-1 home defeat to Brighton has seen the Red Devils drop to thirteenth in the Premier League.
And this is also the worst home start to a campaign in over 130 YEARS.
But what exactly went wrong against the Seagulls as United suffered their tenth league defeat of the season?
SunSport's tactical guru Dean Scoggins explained the game in the latest episode of Tactics Exposed…
1. DE LIGT AND YORO WERE SEXED
At 34, United could use Danny Welbeck at Old Trafford. How many forwards have done good work like him in a consistent period since he left in 2014?
It was a great performance up front, but it was also the way he and Joao Pedro absolutely sent Matthijs de Ligt and Leny Yoro into a happy dance.
This isn't the first time we've talked about defenders being dragged out on a rope by a striker, but this is the longest rope I've ever seen.
It was absolutely ridiculous where they went.
With both attackers coming on, both defenders decided to simply go along, leaving space for the really dangerous wingers Yankuba Minteh and Kaoru Mitoma.
Once you get those two behind you, good luck.
It was 4-4-2 and 3-4-3.
It happened all day, not just once.
Harry Maguire must have done his absolute best: 'Just stay with me.'
We've talked before about the positives of a centre-back coming out of line to meet the ball, but that's when you're defending on the edge of the penalty area and taking three or four yards to get to the ball as you have a ball. cover behind you, not if you have 50 meters of field behind you.
The back line wasn't even a zigzag line – that would be a compliment – it was just this higgledy-piggledy line. De Ligt and Yoro, especially Yoro, didn't know whether to hold or twist.
He looked confused and like the message of what they are doing hasn't gotten through.
For the first goal, De Ligt, where are you going? If he sits, it's a back pedal and a header, or a spin and a hook over his shoulder. It was terrible.
2. WING BACKS PEELED BACK
But we must also give a huge amount of credit to Brighton and Fabian Hurzeler.
It was essentially an old-fashioned 4-4-2, albeit with the centre-backs dropped so the wingers could move on.
United's wing-backs have no confidence in the centre-backs as they could not afford to push forward if they lost possession as De Ligt and Yoro could not cover as they were occupied by the attackers.
So Harry Maguire kind of pretended not to do anything – and that's not a criticism of Maguire – because no players were passed on to pick up.
The full-backs were consistently deeper than the three centre-backs throughout the game, which is crazy.
Perhaps Maguire is told not to leave that central square and not to be dragged out of position in any way – but they need to be more intelligent.
There are two solutions.
Or it is the full-backs who actually push a little bit and turn to cover the space that those attackers fall into.
The other option is for Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo to split and pass the attackers to them, allowing the defenders to pick up the wingers as they fly forward.
It wasn't pretty, they were all over the place, and they didn't solve it at halftime because it kept happening in the second half.
3. I AM A BALEBA
Yes, he gave away the penalty for United after Joshua Zirkzee did very well with his pressing, but that was his only mistake because Carlos Baleba was excellent.
He was the consistent one, the only pivot that Brighton played against.
With the ball he can drop in between the two centre-backs, but without the ball he sat in front and swept everything up.
It was 2v1 – Ugarte and Mainoo against Baleba – but he was in charge.
What I liked most was that he knew when to go to the wingers with that direct ball and when to put his foot on the ball.
It was a top class performance and just as Manchester United fans wished he was in a red shirt.
Would he make them better? Yes, I think he is better than Ugarte, but maybe not as technical a footballer as Mainoo, but he has other things.
Moreover, United do not have many players in that position that Amorim trusts.
Brighton have a big job to keep hold of him.
4. ONANA, OH-NO-NO!
The terrible mistake was unfortunate and let's not forget that United were still in the game at the time.
The setup looks good with a centre-back entering the midfield with one of the two midfielders, usually Ugarte, while the other two centre-backs split up and Mainoo can join Bruno Fernandes in the No10s with the wing-backs high and the central defenders. forward.
They end up in a good position. Onana was brought in because he is good with his feet, but he doesn't play it and I think it's because he doesn't trust the central defenders to play the pass back.
He looks a bit static and doesn't seem to want to play those ten yard passes to get him back and pull the opponent out of position.
It's as if he's a bit shocked by the whole scenario and feels like the ball-playing goalkeeper is being oppressed by the way he wants to play.
Maybe it's time for Altay Bayindir to try, because they need to sort it out very, very quickly.
United have done well when they can be a low block. They have done well against teams with a very low block, but have struggled against a mid block.
5. MISSING IN ACTION
There's a very, very high-end nerdy statistic about player positions among certain managers, which is effectively determined by whether a player is a striker, where he goes other than that striker position – or how much he deviates from his position.
Amorim's teams – especially Sporting – are very focused and don't deviate much from a rigid structure of what he wants.
It differs from average positions, but is more similar to heat maps and how concentrated they are.
This Manchester United team is everywhere.
There was a moment against Southampton when seven players were in shot and five of them are out of position.
It's just wild that they're so far out of position and that comes from earlier in a move where you got sucked out.
Mainoo is not unfit or slow, but sometimes makes half sprints, this one jogs to the number 10 position, does not get there and is played around, leaving Ugarte alone and he presses and the ball also goes around him and then into the middle – ridges are sucked out.
They're just not in their position at all.
It just wasn't very good and it doesn't seem like they're trying very hard, given the form.
I think they are doing their best. They just get sucked out of positions they shouldn't be in.
One mistake leads to the second, then the dominoes go and then you have five of the seven people out of position.
The solution could be as simple as what a coach does with an Under-11, Under-12 team and puts the cones on the field and says, 'You are not leaving your field.'
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