VAR cheated Manchester United!? Watch How VAR Ruled out two Manchester United goals. – truly the England Referees are against us
One day, Manchester United’s terrible 2023/24 Premier League season will be buried in memory. We will cease discussing it and stop applying it as a benchmark. It will not seem all that pertinent right now.
Right now, with the second stage of the Erik ten Hag period still in development, it will shape our perceptions of this squad. It is the prism through which early in the season United is being assessed.
And this was more of a worry if the opinions on the opening weekend were positive. It was not quite the fall-off United was typically linked with previous season. They were more regimented and more under control, harder to play against for much of the day. They cannot, however, break the obsession with anarchy.
United dropped a cheap opening in a boring first half and rode their luck before a 95th-minute victory that seemed like it ought to have been gift-wrapped opened the game following the interval. It seemed disturbingly similar to fail to clear a corner and then neglect to guard half the penalty area during the second phase. It arrived at a period when Brighton’s pressure had been mounting.
Thus, a point that would have given Ten Hag’s new side belief evaporated and the traditional questions returned empty-handed. This team does appear better, but are the changes sufficient? Though they are more compact and have improved as a pressing team, they are not generating enough opportunities and are making defensive mistakes. It loads a lot of pressure on the Liverpool Old Trafford encounter next week.
Ten Hag’s side triumphed here in May, but it seemed unusual. Brighton have won four of their past five Premier League games and in many respects they are a team United wants to replicate under Ineos. Though in many respects their blueprint is also United’s nightmare team.
Their goal is to be a top variation of Brighton. This is a club with so much right. One highly rated manager is lost, and another that no Premier League team had thought of replaces him. Just keep the process going while he travels.
Following a player exodus from the Amex in recent years, this summer has been more consistent and they have spent more than United on fresh recruits. Many of them are imaginative acquisitions and all of them are young players with clearly resale value. Players from Mainz, Nordsjaelland, Gothenburg are arriving.
Under 31-year-old head coach Fabian Hurzeler, one can clearly see them adopt Roberto De Zerbi’s approach. The wingers still fly forward; two strikers still try to draw the press deep.
Almost every ‘big’ club’s envy is that consistency and the transfer market hit rate. One is not distinct from another. They have bounced from one trend to the next, from one style to the next, for far too long. The Seagulls in Hurzeler look to have another manager headed for the top; if either club deserved to win the game it was they.
Ten Hag’s craw will stick in particular as he was beaten by a coach twenty-three years younger than him. He could have weathered the summer, but early in the season the pressure might quickly rise and he has to prevent outcomes like these.
Following Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the largest risk associated with his ownership. Under Ineos, United is beginning to get things right; their summer transfer activity appears sensible. They cannot afford many more games of this nature.
