3 Things We Learnt As Manchester United Tasted Defeat Against Brighton

Well, the season for Manchester United has started horribly as they tasted defeat in their second league game of the season against relegation favourites Brighton.

A team that looks to be in absolute disarray would be the accurate way to describe the Red Devils at this point in time. This is a team that is supposedly meant to be challenging Manchester City, who are getting stronger and stronger.

They are in a horrible position compared to their start in the last season which was electric and they were rewarded with the name of '4-0 FC' as they were blowing teams away. However, this season, it doesn't look like they can replicate that.

In their first game of the season, they just about won against Leicester. We all know what happened against Brighton as they were embarrassed and ripped to shreds by a team that cost £60 Million!

#1 Attitude

They all looked like they didn't care about the result even during the game when they were 3-1 down. There was no sense of urgency or desperation in getting back on level terms. By the time Pogba converted his penalty, it seemed a little too late to influence the game though.

The comments of Paul Pogba in his post-match interview summed up the current problem with the Red Devils. There attitude was poor and Brighton deservedly won the game as United brought defeat upon themselves in only their second game of the new season.

A question that must be asked is whether or not these players want to play for their manager Jose Mourinho as it doesn't look like that.

#2 Poor Defence

Bailly and Lindelof had an afternoon to forget

Only a few years back, especially under the Fergie's reign, you would associate Manchester United with having two rock-solid centre-backs. But these days it seems the exact opposite.

Eric Bailly shocked us with his performance bearing in mind he is regarded as the one of the best defenders at the club, but that performance told us he is playing like he's one of the worst.

Now you can understand why Mourinho wanted a new centre-back so much, as his current ones are liabilities and are error-prone.

Eric Bailly, whose poor clearance gifted Brighton a corner which they scored from, also put in a rash challenge which gave Brighton a penalty from which they converted to make it 3-1.

Maybe on another day those mistakes would have gonna unpunished, but definitely not today. Poor defensive decision-making cost Manchester United the game and there is no doubt about that.

#3 Mourinho needs to change his system

Mourinho needs to change his system if he wants to succeed at Manchester United

The way Mourinho set up was too negative. You would expect Manchester United to come at Brighton and press them high up the pitch and get in their faces. You would have expected that but the team that was doing this was Chris Hughton's men.

If United want to beat these smaller teams, they need to set up in the right manner appropriate for the team they are facing. You can't set up against City and set up against a team like Watford in the same manner, can you? Every team is different and cannot be addressed in the same manner especially from a tactical perspective.

What next for Manchester United? Well, they face Spurs at home in their next game and it will be interesting to see how they react to this defeat and how Mourinho will react. But this loss will give smaller teams more hope in so much as they can beat Manchester United if they try to implant the same strategy that Brighton displayed.