Manchester United had a resounding debut in the Premier League: they lost 1-2 to Brighton at Old Trafford, with Cristiano Ronaldo being a substitute and entering the second half, and with Erik ten Hag being booed.
Lucas Gross was in charge of making United suffer, as he scored Brighton’s goals in the 30th and 39th minutes of play.
In the first half, Brighton were better in each and every one of the aspects that define the difference on the pitch, in aptitude and attitude, in order, ambition and transition, in attack and in defence; in the second, United awoke from the imagination of Christian Eriksen and the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo, who entered the field in the 53rd minute, but was unable to level the match, among other things because Rashford missed his chances.
The substitution of a scorer like the Portuguese star, perhaps explained by his intention to leave or his late arrival in the preseason, is an unaffordable concession for Manchester United today, a vulnerable team in every sector of the pitch and a insubstantial block in its collective, which is entrusted to a collection of individualities that give off a level that today does not have as a whole.
And there are few like Cristiano Ronaldo, very few, no matter how much he is already 37 years old or wants to leave. The official staging of the Ten Haag era was a fiasco. His first Sunday halftime at Old Trafford cannot be described in any other way, which described a team overwhelmed by the high pressure of its opponent, misplaced in the withdrawal, overwhelmed when it had to contain in its rearguard, irrelevant when it had to create its attacks in the other area and that in just 10 seconds he had already given his rival the first chance.
Planned -it doesn’t seem like it-, coincidence or necessity, the coach ordered Cristiano Ronaldo to warm up just after the 0-2. He did not use it at intermission, from which his team left among the anger of his followers. Yes later. Six minutes after the break, with only half a game in this preseason, the coach turned to him. In the 52nd minute. Acclaimed when he entered the game he transmitted the dimension of him to his teammates.
A light, still dim, in the tunnel through which United had passed throughout the first half, as was the next chance for Rashford, who badly finished off Bruno Fernandes’s shipment, while the clock counted down minutes, although it was already something else, although the sensations were radically different from the entire previous stretch, and Robert Sánchez was running as a figure in Brighton’s goal, one shot from Eriksen… until he failed at 1-2. He failed to clear a corner, perhaps due to the effect of Dalot, and the ball ended up in the net, due to Mac Allister’s involuntary push against his own goal.
It was the 67th minute. United did not give it any more, whose debut confirmed the decline of recent times.