Man United 1 Brighton 3: Defensive issues, Onana fumble and where does Amorim go from here?

Ruben Amorim’s side fell to a fifth defeat in eight games as a familiar set of issues plagued his side against Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford.

Yankuba Minteh opened the scoring after five minutes before captain Bruno Fernandes equalised with a penalty, but Brighton seized control in the second half. First, United’s defence failed to deal with a cross that was finished by Kaoru Mitoma, then goalkeeper Andre Onana let the ball slip from his grasp, allowing Georginio Rutter to nip in for a third.

The 3-1 defeat means Amorim’s side have gone 12 games across all competitions without a clean sheet and, after a recent uptick in performances, the manager is left pondering how to improve his side. They sit 13th in the Premier League after 22 matches.

Here, Mark Critchley breaks down the action from Old Trafford.

Where does Amorim go from here?

After the spirited draw at Anfield, the penalty shootout win at the Emirates and three points on Thursday (even if they were largely unconvincing in that victory against Southampton), United had finally strung a run of positive results together.

But Amorim always said there would be a storm, and clearly, the clouds have not yet lifted after yet another defeat, and yet another at Old Trafford — Amorim’s fourth in his short tenure.

This is a team still waiting to string two league victories together for the first time this season. Is it really any surprise they remain rooted in 13th place? Forget about Europe: they are now seven points off the top half.

United’s only 90-minute wins since early December have come against Viktoria Plzen, Southampton and — bizarrely — Manchester City, but Amorim’s side trailed in all three of those games too.

It is becoming increasingly tempting to write off the league season, if that could ever be acceptable for a club of this stature as early as January — but it is hard to see how Amorim turns this into a positive campaign.

6 – Manchester United have suffered their sixth home Premier League defeat of the season, their most from their opening 12 home matches of a league season since 1893-94 (7). Dismal. pic.twitter.com/cr3IEKRZvP

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 19, 2025

What are United’s defensive issues?

Remember when United could keep a clean sheet? No? We don’t blame you. The last shut-out was 12 games ago, during the 4-0 win over Everton in early December.

There has been a lot of focus on United’s set-piece defending and, while that has been awful at times, there are also gaps in open play that opponents have sought to exploit.

Brighton took advantage of one after just five minutes: when Matthijs de Ligt stepped up out of the defensive line, as at least one of United’s centre-backs is wont to do, Carlos Baleba sent a long ball over the top. United were exposed, Mitoma ran in behind and Minteh applied the finish.

United’s midfield was easily played around for the second, with Yasin Ayari granted acres of space to run into after too easily beating Manuel Ugarte. Diogo Dalot appeared to play Minteh onside then failed to stop his cross and the less said about Noussair Mazraoui’s far-post defending the better.

United’s defensive record was steadily improving — four conceded at Tottenham Hotspur, three against Bournemouth, two against each of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Newcastle United and Liverpool, just one against Arsenal and Southampton.

But the goals against went back in the wrong direction again here and it’s hard to see where the next clean sheet comes from.

And as often as Onana has bailed his team-mates out this season, there have also been familiar errors, including his spill to gift Rutter Brighton’s third.

How did Zirkzee perform up front?

The most eye-catching of Amorim’s three changes from the win over Southampton was including Joshua Zirkzee, with the out-of-sorts Rasmus Hojlund dropping to the bench.

This was Zirkzee’s first start since that defeat against Newcastle. Other players might consider being substituted after half an hour to jeers from their own supporters as the end of their Old Trafford career.

Zirkzee’s last few performances suggested it could be the rebirth of his, after scoring the winning penalty in the Arsenal shootout last weekend and changing the game off the bench on Thursday night.

He did well here in the first half, particularly in his pressing and hold-up play — something that Hojlund has particularly struggled with recently. He also won the penalty that Fernandes converted for United’s equaliser.

But the 23-year-old remains more of a link-up player than a penalty-box poacher, and contributed as little to United’s anaemic attack as anyone else, struggling to bring team-mates into the game in the second half.

There remains no clear answer to the question of who United’s starting centre-forward should be.

Whereas Hojlund has recently struggled when battling with centre-backs for United’s frequent balls over the top, Zirkzee has the frame and the physicality to win those types of duels and bring team-mates into play.

What did Ruben Amorim say?

Speaking after the game, the United manager said: “Everybody here is underperforming, no matter what the circumstances. It is unacceptable to lose so many games for any club in the Premier League, never mind United. It is a really hard moment but we have to continue.

“The opponents are better than us in many details, we cannot be consistent. I am not helping my players. It is a hard moment. We have to acknowledge we are in a very difficult situation, all the bad records, losing games at home, we are really underperforming. I knew that it was going to be hard to put in a completely new idea but when you lose games and don’t have the luck to win three games in a row, it is going to be really hard.

“We are being maybe the worst team in the history of Manchester United. I know that you want headlines but I’m saying that because we have to acknowledge that and to change that. So there you go, your headline.”