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Manchester United suffered their first defeat of the new Premier League season at the weekend as a 95th minute Joao Pedro goal earned Brighton a 2-1 win on the South Coast.
Despite equalising and having opportunities to get the winner, United’s lack of cutting edge cost them once more away from home.
Marcus Rashford endured another lacklustre afternoon and the England striker’s performance drew criticism from BBC pundit Alan Shearer.
As reported by The Mirror, speaking on Match of the Day, record Premier League goalscorer Shearer tore into Rashford’s display, picking out his poor tactical awareness on the day.
The former Newcastle man slammed United forwards for their “lack of understanding about where they were on the pitch,” citing Rashford in particular.
United were caught offside six times at the Amex Stadium with Rashford responsible for a number of the offences, something Shearer said “really is staggering”, whilst running through some clips.
The stats back up Shearers claims with United being caught offside nine times in their first two games, only beaten by Everton with 12.
United could count themselves unfortunate with one of the breaches on Saturday with Joshua Zirkzee’s inadvertent touch on the goalline causing Alejandro Garnacho’s goal to be disallowed which would have given Erik ten Hag’s side the advantage going into the closing stages.
Rashford also had a goal disallowed in the first half, underlining’s Shearer’s point even further.
The 26-year-old hasn’t showed any signs of reversing last season’s poor form in the opening rounds of action this time around and may find himself on the bench for the huge game against Liverpool next weekend.
Dropping Rashford for the visit of the old enemy really would underline the fall from grace for a player who scored 30 times just two seasons ago.
However, Rashford’s big game record is outstanding and a strong performance against Arne Slot’s side could really kickstart his, and United’s campaign.
Another poor outing and defeat, on the other hand, would heap more pressure on Rashford and Ten Hag, who is only too aware of the need to avoid another slow start to the season.
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2024-08-25 17:00:26
