Two ex-Manchester United defenders have offered a scathing review of the side’s defence in their 3-1 loss to Brentford, singling out one player in particular who was at fault for Brentford’s second goal.
Manchester United slumped to their third Premier League defeat in six matches, losing 3-1 to Brentford on Saturday.
United started with intent but were punished early as Igor Thiago struck twice inside the opening 20 minutes. Benjamin Šeško pulled one back with a scrappy finish, yet Rúben Amorim’s side trailed at the interval.
Second-half substitutions brought fresh energy, and a penalty awarded to United looked set to change the momentum. However, Bruno Fernandes’ spot-kick was saved after a long delay, and Brentford held firm.
In stoppage time, Mathias Jensen’s powerful finish sealed the result, leaving United frustrated and still searching for consistency.
Diogo Dalot at fault for Brentford’s second
Despite once being named Manchester United’s Player’s Player of the Season for the 2023-24 campaign, Diogo Dalot has struggled to adapt to life in Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 set-up.
During the review of United’s loss for ManUtd.com, former United defenders Wes Brown and Danny Simpson reflected on Brentford’s second goal of the afternoon, speaking on Dalot’s role in conceding the goal and suggesting that it was a schoolboy’s error.
They said: “You see Dalot now runs inside, but if you’re going to do that, then you’ve got to be aware of the striker, he’s not looking at the ball, everyone’s staring at the ball, this is what you get told as a kid, you know, to look for people around you.
“As you can see from this angle, he runs inside. I don’t know why he doesn’t stay with Schade. Me and Wes played right-back, and we can’t understand why he did that.”
Wider defensive issues
The pair also reflected on the wider defence during the game against Brentford, their problems so far this season, and the main issue for United at the back.
“The thing about that is, there are three problems here. The strikers have got on the wrong side of the defenders, so everyone is shuffling back. Then it’s the next header down, and that’s the forward who ran into the middle. We’re sort of ball watching, we’re not really looking at the man.
Read More: Brighton star explains why he is helping Manchester United player, “it hurts” to be in his position
“If somebody just marks a man, then it’s a 50/50 to see who gets there first, but it didn’t quite happen.
“That seems to be something in our game at the moment. At Fulham, Smith-Rowe ran off us, Foden ran off us for the first goal, everyone’s just looking at the ball, and normally you’ve got to check what’s around you.
“Again, then for that second goal, you’ve got to smell danger, as defenders, you have to smell danger and think worst case.”
Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is streamed live every Thursday at 12:30 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.