Brighton 3-2 Manchester United: 4 talking points

#3 The full-back roles are still problematic

Ashley Young had a poor game

A constant area of concern for Jose Mourinho during his first two seasons was the full-back positions, as he struggled to find suitable players to fill in the wide berths of defence.

Multiple players such as Danny Blind, Marcos Rojo, Matteo Darmian, Phil Jones all played in those positions at different points under Jose Mourinho to no avail, as all of them failed to perform well enough to nail down the starting spot.

Jose showed a distinct lack of trust in Luke Shaw's abilities, and constantly took out opportunities to criticize the left back in public, and substituted him off on multiple occasions due to perceived poor performances by the 23-year-old.

These problematic areas led to Mourinho converting former winger Ashley Young into a makeshift left-back, and the 33-year-old performed considerably well enough to earn a spot as England's starting left-back at the just concluded World Cup in Russia.

The opposite flank of Manchester United's defence is also manned by a converted winger, and while Antonio Valencia has held his own in the role for the best part of the last three seasons, at 33 years, age is no longer on the Ecuadorian's side, and injuries are beginning to take its toll.

Against Brighton, Young filled in for injured Valencia at right-back and was constantly running around and exposed far too easily by the Brighton attack. Luke Shaw started on the other flank, after impressing significantly against Leicester where he scored the first goal of his professional career but fell back into his old habits of not defending properly, with Brighton players constantly run in behind him as he failed to track their runs.

Effective full-backs are very much a key component of the modern game, and unlike Benjamin Mendy (who already has three assists this season) and Kyle Walker at Manchester City, Manchester United's full-backs haven't shown the necessary performance levels required at a top club, and this is a problem which could hinder United's title aspirations this season.