So many of Our players look passive and scared to make an attacking move. Only Williams doing really well so far.
U18s Youth Cup - Manchester United vs Brighton
- Thread starter roonster09
- Start date
The fullbacks need to get further forward to provide runs/options out wide.
United look all out of ideas already. Never seen a team as defensive as Brighton at this level, fair play to them, their plan has worked perfectly so far. Midfield have been dreadful today, one or Traore’s worst appearances for us, Garner got better as the half wore on. Whole defence apart from Williams have been poor. Puigmal isn’t a bad player but he’s been a disaster today.
Brighton are defending with 2 lines of defense. United's midfielders aren't capable (apart from Traore) of dribbling past that initial line of defense so they're left with taking shots from outside the area or passing it to one of the forwards who have 2 lines of defenders collapsing on them.
This is why it's important for the fullbacks to be further forward. It can drag a defender out wide to clear up some space, it can provide another passing option for the forwards, and the fullbacks can provide a cross. They're often not making the runs when the ball gets to the forward in that scenario. They only do so when the play is switched, which gives ample time for Brighton's defense to setup.
This is why it's important for the fullbacks to be further forward. It can drag a defender out wide to clear up some space, it can provide another passing option for the forwards, and the fullbacks can provide a cross. They're often not making the runs when the ball gets to the forward in that scenario. They only do so when the play is switched, which gives ample time for Brighton's defense to setup.
Brighton forward with the most obvious dive ever to try and win a pen. Nice to see it's being drilled in at all levels.
3-0 Brighton. Poor defending costs us again.
Great defending 
Reminds me of the Januzaj, Daehli FA youth cup team. Defense just cost them.
Brighton have defended brilliantly and countered well. Their gameplay has worked perfectly - 3 shots on target - 3 goals.
I am beginning to wonder how many of our Young players who mentally are strong enough. This happens almost every year. A bit of pressure and they collapse against inferior sides.
It's almost scary to see 2 of our midfielders walking around on the pitch when we should be desperate to get a goal.
With so many influential United people at the match you would think they'd be chasing everything.
Traore is having an absolute stinker.
Is he always this shit?
Brighton defender should've been sent off for a second yellow.
This is the worst I’ve seen him play.
I'm afraid I don't watch enough U-18 games to make a judgement but on the evidence of tonight he's looked out of his depth.
I hope Mason gets another chance at this trophy next year.
Who's the last top class defender to come out of our system? O'Shea?
Looks wank, Garner has shown glimpses.
Agreed.
Proper 'Jose-esque' performance by Brighton. Defended for their lives, and every chance they've managed to score from against the run of play.
United must be incredibly frustrated.
Williams the only one who can hold his head up. Traore has been absolutely terrible and he pretty much ruined the game single handedly from the start with his stupid penalty. Puigmal not much better and Bernard has been better at striker than at the back.
He's very overrated on here. Other than being strong he's nothing special at all.
He has very quick technical feet as you saw there in the last minute. Problem is, he's not all that great at creating for others with his passing, nor is he some great scorer. He has two traits of Pogba. The quick feet and athletic ability, but not the rest of the magic.
Williams was a man possessed in the 2nd half. Greenwood tried everything but it just wouldn't go in for him. Ramazani was positive when he came on.
The rest didn't turn up.
The rest didn't turn up.
A performance that will do absolutely nothing for any of the Brighton youngsters. Results over performance mentaility is wrong at this level.
Incredibly frustrating game!
That's exactly how it came across.
They'll get schooled by the next defensively sound team they face. Unfortunately we were not that team tonight.
Looks to have the whiny temper tantrum trait too despite being complete shite all game.
He infuriates me to be honest. He has the odd nice bit of footwork from time to time but he's an extremely sloppy footballer and looks half arsed most of the time. There's nothing about him that justifies all the hype he gets on here.
Reality check for Greenwood too. Apart from shoot on sight was distinctly average.
Bit harsh imo. He was our only threat really and showed good touch and calmness in our build up play at times. Very strange to see him not catch so many shots tonight though. He usually strikes the ball really cleanly
Nah, Brighton were playing with a back 8. At times Greenwood was double and triple marked. It was ridiculous the amount of bodies that were guarding their box. No space down the flanks or through the middle. We should have opted for plan C, which would have been throwing all of the biggest lads up and trying to beat them in the air. We played 95% of the match in their half. The counter attack was mostly always on, and they played that to perfection. Such a frustrating match. I thought that Ethan Galbraith started showing flashes of Scholes with some great passes, spreading the ball around and having a crack when the space opened up in the first half. He tailed off in the second half. Ramazani would have made more of an impact with more minutes on the pitch, he had their fullback on toast. And it would've provided more opportunities to spread the play while Greenwood was heavily marked. Disappointed, but it's a good learning curve for the boys. I hope it doesn't spoil any of their chances of first team football this season, because some are knocking on the door by merit.
This is happening so many times, it's not a coincidence.
So does Greenwood now get promoted to the u23s full time? It makes sense to start playing with Gomes and Chong more regularly as they're in the u19 tournament too.
This will be an excellent learning curve. For any young player wanting to make it here at United, they will have to get used to playing extremely defensive teams such as Brighton today. The more attacking players will have to get used to being double or triple marked.
Fair play to Brighton, they fully deserved it. They got their tactics bang on.
But saying that we played into their hands by not playing the match at Old Trafford, I understand not playing the first home match of any given FAYC campaign there after Jason Gilchrist, a massive United fan and a City reject to boot scored a hat-trick for Carlisle, yep that Carlisle to knock us out a few years ago at Old Trafford, and the club feeling the pressure of representing Manchester United in the Theatre of Dreams in the early rounds is too much for some if not all of the players, which is fair enough, kinda, though it also sends out the message to our players if there's not enough pressure on them representing Manchester United in the FAYC already that we(the club) don't think they're good enough to play there, and the opposition players pick up of it.
Once we had beat Chelsea the lads earned the right to play at Old Trafford, yet....
But saying that we played into their hands by not playing the match at Old Trafford, I understand not playing the first home match of any given FAYC campaign there after Jason Gilchrist, a massive United fan and a City reject to boot scored a hat-trick for Carlisle, yep that Carlisle to knock us out a few years ago at Old Trafford, and the club feeling the pressure of representing Manchester United in the Theatre of Dreams in the early rounds is too much for some if not all of the players, which is fair enough, kinda, though it also sends out the message to our players if there's not enough pressure on them representing Manchester United in the FAYC already that we(the club) don't think they're good enough to play there, and the opposition players pick up of it.
Once we had beat Chelsea the lads earned the right to play at Old Trafford, yet....
Shame I missed this game, but regardless if Brighton got the tactics right, that's not good enough. Whether we play at OT or LSV at this level especially that should have been an easy win for this extremely talented group of players. Brighton have probably been bottom 3, if not the worst Cat 1 side over the past few seasons, performance-wise to say the least, so games like these should be a walk in the park. This must go down to complacency, the kids can only learn from this.
On a brighter note, it'll be good to see if some of the lads can use this upset to push on and get some 23's action under their belt to hopefully boost their development.
On a brighter note, it'll be good to see if some of the lads can use this upset to push on and get some 23's action under their belt to hopefully boost their development.
The defending was shambolic all night and Brighton had loads of clear cut chances. We lacked craft and guile in the final third and just smashed it from distance mainly. Was expecting much more after these lads beat Chelsea but came away wondering what the hype was all about.