Calamitous Man Utd must face a shocking reality – this might be their worst ever team | OneFootball

As Manchester United celebrated and commemorated their past, they made the wrong sort of history, the sort that led Ruben Amorim to wonder if this is their worst-ever team. The juxtaposition of glories in previous days and current struggles can be awkward, occasionally unfair. But after the tributes to Denis Law, came the troubles. United finished with a defeat to Brighton that drew comparisons to a time almost seven decades before Law became the king of the Stretford End. For the first time since 1893, United have lost six of their opening 12 home league games. Then they were called Newton Heath, had just moved to Bank Street, were in their second season in the Football League and earned just 14 points.

Now? “We are the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United,” said Amorim, whose 11 games have yielded just 11 points. “We have to acknowledge that and change that. In [the last] nine games in the Premier League, we won two, I know that. It is unacceptable to lose so many games for any club in the Premier League, imagine Manchester United.”

And yet it is their new norm. After a wreath was laid for Law by three 1968 European Cup-winning players, in Alex Stepney, Paddy Crerand and Brian Kidd, and the 1999 and 2008 Champions League-winning manager, in Sir Alex Ferguson, the team marooned in 13th place lost for the fourth time in five outings at Old Trafford. Yankuba Minteh, Kaoru Mitoma and Georgino Rutter chalked up Brighton’s regular win over United.

That Law’s final kick of the ball was a backheeled winner for Manchester City as United were relegated is an illustration their past is not unblemished. Nevertheless, this is shaping up as United’s poorest league season for decades. “Everybody here is underperforming, no matter what the circumstances,” said Amorim. That includes him and, as he pointed out, his results are even poorer than the sacked Erik ten Hag’s.

“You are getting a new coach who is losing more than the last coach. Imagine that,” he said. “We need to survive this moment. I know that. I am not naïve. I am not helping my players in the moment.” And those players have a capacity to appear helpless as well as hapless, an incompetent assortment of expensive misfits.

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Flowers are laid in front of the Trinity statue in memory of former Manchester United player Denis Law (Reuters)

Their opposites, in so many ways, are Brighton, with their eye for a bargain, their successful signings, their precocious managerial appointment working out. “A special moment, for sure,” said Fabian Hurzeler, the boyhood Bayern Munich fan who has painful memories of Ferguson’s 1999 triumph. “I was really hurt they caused me a lot of tears when I was young,” he said.

He is still young but Hurzeler’s Brighton made the right kind of history. They joined Manchester City as the only team to record three consecutive Premier League away wins at Old Trafford. But for Amad Diallo’s late hat-trick against Southampton, United would have five straight home defeats.

If nothing else, this supported Amorim’s theory that the rest of the season will be a rollercoaster, albeit one that contains more downs than ups. United, architects of their latest downfall in a variety of ways, only have themselves to blame. They began Amorim’s reign with early goals. Since then, they have been strangely slow starters. For the fifth consecutive match at Old Trafford, they conceded first. For the third time in that sequence, they were 1-0 down after five minutes.

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Brighton’s Yankuba Minteh celebrates after setting up his fellow winger Kaoru Mitoma for their side’s second goal (Action Images via Reuters)

In goal, Andre Onana was horribly at fault for Albion’s third goal, perhaps culpable for the second. The Cameroonian has made 10 errors that have led to goals in his brief Premier League career. When he is bad, he is awful. The defence who had performed valiantly in backs-to-the-wall efforts against Liverpool and Arsenal looked utterly ill-suited to playing with a high line. They were outpaced by a faster Brighton side; outflanked, too, given the first two goals came from a combination of their wingers. Amorim fielded a side with five defenders and they stopped neither.

In midfield, the starters Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo were so ineffectual that, for the second time in four days, each had been substituted before the mid-point of the second half. In attack, United registered no shot on target in open play, scoring only from Bruno Fernandes’ penalty after Carlos Baleba hauled down Joshua Zirkzee. Tactically, there was a chaotic feel, as though United tried to take on Brighton at their own high-energy game and completely failed. Perhaps only the relentless Amad deserves to escape censure. And yet the manager was adamant his ideas are not the issue. “I am not going to change, no matter what,” added Amorim.

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Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana reacts after his latest blunder (Action Images via Reuters)

Dopey defending was the initial problem, Onana denying Joao Pedro even before the breakthrough, as within 10 minutes of the moving ceremony to honour Law, United trailed. The whole United defence was caught out by Baleba’s 50-yard pass. Mitoma sprinted in behind Noussair Mazraoui, Minteh escaped beyond Leny Yoro. The Japanese squared for the Gambian to finish. “A simple play,” lamented Amorim.

Albion’s first two goals were a role reversal. Mitoma made the first for Minteh while the right winger set up the second for the left winger. After an hour, Minteh’s cross was finished by Mitoma, with Mazraoui, attempting to mark him, instead ending up poleaxed by the post.

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‘When he is bad, he is awful’: It was another poor day for Onana (Martin Rickett/PA)

United could already have been behind: they were reprieved after they seemed to concede in calamitous fashion, Pedro finishing but a VAR intervention ruling Jan Paul van Hecke’s foul on Diogo Dalot was spotted. There was no such escape when Onana contrived to spill Yasin Ayari’s cross at the feet of the substitute Rutter. “When you win you can be very proud but unfortunately it is only three points,” said Hurzeler.

Another three. It gave Albion a sixth win in seven league games against United. It is the sort of statistic that would have defied all credibility a few years ago. Now it is reality. And it led Amorim to wonder if this United are at a historic low. He added: “We need to understand we are breaking all the bad records.”