Manchester United: What Went Wrong and What Can Be Done After Brentford Loss?

Diogo Dalot, Marcus Rashford and No Motivation

Man United have endured tough times in making their right-backs play as per expectations and up until now the tough times march on.

Neither the manager nor Dalot knew what was his actual role in the match and how he should play. For a bit, it seemed to one that Ten Hag is using him as an inverted right flanker, and if that was the case, it failed miserably.

Whenever the Portuguese pushed up the pitch, he left a huge space at right-back, thus inviting the likes of DaSilva, Toney, and Mbeumo to use that position to their will and tear apart the Man United defence.

Dalot tried to involve himself in the game. Certainly, the shock of being 4-0 down at 35 minutes stunned all the players, owing to their poor performance. But players like Dalot and Rashford, among others, showed absolutely no hunger, nor a desire to get back into the game.

Like Dalot, Rashford displays no determination and has a serious lack of confidence, as he tried to get involved, but was covered well by the Bees’ defence.

He could’ve helped by dropping back and getting the ball moving up the pitch, by creating options to pass for the United defence. But he rather chose to stick to the left-wing role without wanting to move an inch.

The same goes for Sancho, who also remained cemented to his position and didn’t even bother to drop down when Maguire was shouting at him to stay close and create an option to pass for him. It might be something Ten Hag employed but it too failed quite clearly.

He needs to give his wingers more freedom to move about the pitch, rather than restricting them to stay up and not get more involved.