Manchester United suffered a disappointing 2-1 Premier League defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday afternoon.
The Red Devils lacked the cutting edge in the final third at the Amex Stadium and they paid the price with Brighton securing a late win.
The likes of Diogo Dalot, Noussair Mazraoui and Amad Diallo had good performances, but there were some below-par displays as well.
Marcus Rashford was one of those who are unconvincing. The 26-year-old was barely involved in the game with just successful 13 passes.
The Red Devils graduate won only two out of five duels contested. He was caught offside on two occasions and lost possession seven times.
Both him and Diallo were disappointing in the first half, but the latter made amends after the break, scoring a hugely deflected equaliser.
Rashford’s performance did not improve after the interval. There were no surprises that he was replaced by Alejandro Garnacho in the 65th minute.
Garnacho had the same number of touches (23) as Rashford in just 32 minutes. He completed 11 passes and was very unlucky to not score.
His goal was chalked off by VAR after Joshua Zirkzee made contact from an offside position before the ball went into the back of the net.
In our view, manager Erik ten Hag has to make some shrewd decisions. He has to drop Rashford on the back of another average showing.
The £51 million-rated star has a good record against Liverpool with seven goals in 18 meetings, but Ten Hag should pick next weekend’s team on merit.
Amad deserves to start on the right wing after redeeming himself in the second half.
Garnacho should get the nod over Rashford on the left side of the attack. The Argentine has been lively off the bench in the first three games of the season.
He scored in the Community Shield before bagging the assist for Zirkzee’s winner versus Fulham. Garnacho just missed out on a goal at Brighton.
With Mason Mount injured, Bruno Fernandes should return to his preferred number 10 role with Zirkzee leading the attack against Arne Slot’s side.
