An early shock exit reveals tactical blunders and a season of few games. What happened to Manchester United?
On Sunday evening, Manchester United bowed out of the 25/26 FA Cup at the first time of asking, after a 2-1 defeat at home to Brighton & Hove Albion. This means United will play just 40 games across all competitions this season - their fewest since 1915 (when war was raging in Europe, which was a fair excuse).
The game pretty much summed up the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era. In March 2015, Danny Welbeck scored for Arsenal in a 2-1 defeat of United in the FA Cup. 11 years later, and he is still haunting his former club.
To make matters worse, there was a lot of rotation from the visitors, a lot more than there was from United. So, in what seems to have been Darren Fletcher's final game in interim charge, what went wrong?
Squad Selection Gone Arwy
Let's begin with the team selection. It was a weird lineup. Fletcher opted to play a 4-2-3-1 formation, yet didn't select any wingers. You can maybe get away with playing one of Mason Mount or Matheus Cunha out wide. Maybe. But you definitely shouldn't be starting with both on the wings.
This gave a huge onus on Patrick Dorgu and Diogo Dalot to provide the width. The former did ok, though not spectacularly, whilst Dalot particularly struggled. He missed a huge chance early on, and not long later, the visitors took the lead.
Admittedly, this is being said after his sending off as a substitute, but what harm would it have done to start Shea Lacey on the right-hand side? Isn't one of the club mottos "youth, courage, success"? You'd think a successful academy graduate like Fletcher would understand that more than most, but alas.
Questionable Subs
The substitution of Joshua Zirkzee for Kobbie Mainoo felt unnecessary. Sure, United were chasing the game, but that felt like an attacking change for the sake of it. United lost control of the game after that, having just five attempts in the subsequent 28 minutes.
Nevertheless, the wing pairing of two midfielders was the weirdest decision, clearly made by an incredibly inexperienced manager. Aside from that, it was just too many poor performances. Several players put in 4/10 performances.
It is almost unthinkable: just 40 games in a season for United. Now, attention turns to the looming Manchester derby this weekend.
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