I think I've finally calmed down after yesterday's game. Penning down my player by player thoughts to get it out of system.
De Gea: Nothing much he could do about either goal. The commentator harshly criticized him for the second one but he did get decent distance on the parry. Distribution again was hot and cold but you could forgive him trying to find a wide person every time as Fred showed in the initial minutes that he's always likely to provide an assist to the opposition.
Dalot: Bang average. And took him just 10 seconds to prove that all our efforts to play out of the back will be hindered by the lack of quality of individuals including and especially him. He did have a few minor positives in attack though but he'll remain a liability for major part of the season.
Maguire: He was alright even if it may be an unpopular opinion. His switch of play in the initial part of the game was quite good. Unfortunately his lack of pace is always going to be challenge and the offside for the first goal was wafer thin. In an ideal world, we would be upgrading him but we definitely can't buy more CBs. It would be up to Lindelof or Varane to displace him. His ball hogging days are still continuing it seems.
Lisandro: He looked really impressive in the beginning with his ability to play short passes between the lines. Overall, he looked better than our other CB options.
Shaw: Similar to Dalot, he was quite average. Didn't offer enough quality on the final ball when he did overlap which in itself were far and few between. Picked up his customary booking as well.
Fred: You can never fault his effort and unlike Mctominay, he never hides. But playing him as a 6 is a suicide as he gives away the ball too frequently which, in turn, makes the CBs lose confidence in passing the ball to him essentially killing our entire approach of holding on to the ball and creating chances. He may be half decent option as an 8 from the bench but hope we never see him in that position again. His performance will cause the club to lose millions as all the potential sellers of CDMs would've seen how desperate we are to upgrade.
McTominay: Future captain they said. He is so poor on the ball when he actually shows for it but usually hides behind opponents. He had already given away the ball a couple of times before actually doing it again in the build up to the first Brighton goal. The fact that he lasted 75 odd minutes made me really judge ETH. He should be nowhere close to our squad.
Bruno: He has had a lot of credit in the bank for his G/A record but he's starting to run out now. He's always hit and miss with his passing but games like these really frustrate the hell out of you. Also has had this amazing propensity to miss sitters since the start of last season. He scores the chance in the first 10 mins and the whole game could've been different. He has talked the talk enough, we need to see it on the pitch now.
Eriksen: What a weird call to start him as the striker. Looked much better on the ball than any of our players. Nothing much to judge him on yet.
Sancho: He looks quality on the ball every time he has it but either he doesn't get on it enough or we're unable to give him that opportunity. In the 4-5 instances he did, he tried and missed the final ball in a couple of those, like the one to Ronaldo. He has to do more but I would put it down to a lack of midfield due to which we neither retain the ball nor get our attackers involved in the game.
Rashford: Shambolic. I have never been his biggest fan but, now, the fact that he's our only senior LW scares me to McFred levels. He had so much time and space to finish that chance when Ronaldo wasn't offside. The other chance from Bruno's cross when he hit it with his left foot wasn't as tough as he made it look. But between the two, he should've at least scored one. General play was the usual atrocious standard. He is the main reason why I wish our club has a proper DoF because they would see through the hype and sell him when his hype would be at it's peak. At another club, the likes of Rashford and McTominay collectively could've garnered close to 60-70 million. I hope I'm wrong but I don't see him as a top level footballer. Unfortunately, nosediving akin to Dele Alli.
Subs:
Ronaldo: Did nothing of note apart from creating the Rashford chance which was a really smart run from him. Work rate seemed quite poor though.
VDB: Usual nothingness. Which was an improvement on McTominay
The other 3: Should've been brought sooner. In ETH's defense, he had them ready at 82 mins but then we had a corner followed by a spell of play when the ball didn't go out for 6-7 mins. Malacia showed Fred like naivety in the stoppage time though.
ETH: Unless we face a threat of relegation, this season is going to be a free pass for him. Especially because of our snail like pace in the transfer market, there's nothing he can achieve with this set of players. So all we can do is hope that he's a miracle worker because we don't just need him to coach, he's also our only scout.