220: Mbeumo Masterclass! Man United 4-2 Brighton Review

0:28Here's golf legend John Daly. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the United Stands. I'm Mark Goldbridge. Manchester United 4, Brighton 2 and Manchester United into the top four, actually in fourth place. Hopefully, Brentford can do us a favour tonight. But I want to ask the first question of you. I thought we played well. You know, I think the player ratings are going to be really interesting. Get involved, mark every player out of 10, 6 being the average. Links in the description for that. But what was your thoughts on the performance? Because I've seen some people like Robert McCormack saying we didn't play that well.

1:02Embermo Cunha doing exactly what they said on the tin. There's a few things I want to sort of get into very, very early on. First and foremost, I wish we could play Brighton every week at Old Trafford. I think they were the perfect team to play. They play the same way. They play risk. And it's perfect for us because if we can win the ball back high up, we've got the players that hurt teams. I think a low block is going to be very interesting next week. against Forest and see if we can do that. But we're taking on different challenges at the moment. Liverpool last week were on the front foot. Brighton play out from the back.

1:32And we've dealt with that. Let's see how we do next week against the low block. But look, two wins in a row, three wins in a row, into the top four. Lots to be positive about. When ultimately, a win would have been a win. So for me, I take the positives beyond the win. I think there was a lot to be positive about. This is going to be a rare game for me where I'm giving a lot of players seven or above. So very, very happy with that. You know, I thought Bruno played really, really well. I'll call it out. I thought Bruno played really well. Embermo, two goals, superb Cunha goal. And I want to say that at the start, you know, it's a long season and I'm sure there will be losses and I'm sure there'll be Amorim out again at some point.

2:12I don't think we're out of that at all. But what I will say is that when it's good, we should call it for what it is. The strategy in the summer from Amorim and the recruitment team was to spend big on goals. And they obviously looked at it and went, if we score goals, we'll score enough goals to win games. And if you look at that game today and then you look at last season, if we'd have had Rasmus, Ganacho, Anthony, Rashford, whoever as our front players, would we have scored four goals? Probably not. Would we have conceded to? Probably. And that would have been maybe a 2-1 loss, a 2-0 loss or a 2-2 draw.

2:51We wouldn't have scored four goals. So they've gone and spent the money on Kunja and Embermo and Sesko. and what happens? We score four goals and even though it's squeaky bum time at 3-2, Embermo kills the game off. Cunha scores the goal to get us 1-0 up and I think that, I'm not saying it's going to work. I'm not saying it's going to work. I think there is this terrible tendency in football and in life to be a flip-flop and go, oh, we're back, we're back, we're brilliant. Oh, they got it right, masterclass in the summer and then you lose a game, disasterclass in the summer. But where it worked well tonight is that that theory of buying in goals into the team is why we won the game.

3:33Because Cunha was doing this at Wolves in a worse team, I would say. And Mbermo was doing this at Brentford in a worse team, I would say. So to have those players at Manchester United now scoring goals on the regular, I think Roy Keane said it the other week, if United are scoring at least two goals every game, you're going to pick up a lot of points because not many teams are going to score two or more against you. And today was the quintessential example of that. We've scored four goals at home. You're not going to lose a game if you score four goals at home unless something ridiculous happens at the other end.

4:11So I think regardless of performance, I would almost entertain people saying, I don't think we were that good because I would say, well, we might not have been that good, but we scored four goals and we scored two goals at Anfield and we've scored six goals in the last two games. And when you're scoring that many goals, you're going to give yourself a great chance of winning the game. I mean, we had 42 % possession at home. 42 % possession at home. XG for us was 1.13 and 1.1 for Brighton. They had 17 shots. We had 13 shots. So, you know, statistically, it was a more equal game. But we had people in our team to win the game.

4:57And that's what Cunha and Mbermo have done today. I don't care about possession either, Savage. I felt we deserved to win the game. We were 3-0 up. But what I'm saying is performance may not have been up to standard that some people set, like Robert McCormack, but we scored four goals at Old Trafford and it was a very entertaining game. I actually enjoyed the game. I thought it was a really good game to watch and I think a lot of people around the world, whether they're Man United or Brighton fans, would watch that game and enjoy it. I thought it was a good game of football and to come out on top of it was brilliant.

5:28I don't want to talk about the refereeing but the referee was shit for both teams so absolutely, yeah, not massively interested in that but things I wanted to talk about because I'm going to do this Brentford win against Liverpool hopefully. sorry I've got all sorts of technological problems going on today I can barely see the live chat it's back there Kasa99 says let's give Casemiro a two year contract extension nope my dad passed five years today good win for him rest in peace and says Daniel Green lovely message Cobby was too slow what's happened to him says Nozzy haven't felt like this in a very long time says Farrell not shaving my body until five in a row says Manscaped says Booter Bradley unnecessary door goo hate no reason, says Monke.

6:12Dorgue was miles ahead of Delo. What is the chat, says Lorind. Less possession, less shots, one corner, says Robert McCormack. We were amazing, really good performances, Robert. Did I see 263k views on the watch along, says Ryan. I don't know. Hope you're well, Mark. TUS so happy. Let's go, United. This is Daniel Thompson. Thank you very much. Look, I don't know why people are having a go at Dorgue. I think Delo is horse shit at left wing back. So I don't know why people are having a go at Dorgou. If we're going to play that game, I'm going to jump in and say, although Delo was okay today, I think he's a shit left wing back.

6:47So, you know, I'll defend Dorgou that way if we're going to play silly boogers. I'll be silly and I'll say, I think Delo's shit at left wing back. We can all play that game. Anthony Taylor, it wasn't even a foul by Dorgou. And if it was a foul, it's a red card. So why are we getting on at Dorgou? Just back your players for God's sake. We don't need to be doing that sort of shit. We've won the game 4-2. Why are we taking a pop at players? Why do we always have to find a negative? Why do some people in this fan base always have to find a toxic negative? Why are we taking a pop at our own players when we've won 4-2 and we've won three games in a row?

7:22Why are we even doing that? Amrind made too many subs in the second half. He changed too many positions. Deleuwe went to right wing back. That was one change. Dorgue to left wing back. Maynou into the midfield. And Heben to centre back. that's four changes that's nearly half your team um Brighton made the same four changes but they adapted better it's just one of those things it can happen but we still stayed in the game and we scored the fourth goal so look the reason they got back into the game was because we lost a bit of momentum I want to call out something though this is that there's a few things I want to say I've spoken about Cunha and Imbermo and what they were doing at Wolves and Brentford and I think it's fantastic but I just want to say some people would try to be critical of Lemans on the on the free kick.

8:08Goalkeepers are going to conceive goals. I wouldn't even call that a mistake. Goalkeepers are going to conceive goals. But where I really liked Lemans today was that cross that came in where he's followed it, followed it, followed it. And he does get a touch on it because it is going in and it becomes a corner, but Anthony Taylor doesn't see it. Time and time again, last season, Inanna wouldn't track the ball and it would go in or it would be a corner or whatever. LeMens is doing the basics fantastically well. And I thought he played really, really well today. Again, collecting the ball, claiming the ball.

8:40People, I don't want to see people getting bored. People started talking about, oh, his distribution or he should have done better on the free kick. He's not Peter Schmeichel. He's a brand new goalkeeper in his third game for Manchester United. I actually think he's doing fantastically well. Fantastically well. I thought De Ligt was unbelievable. De Ligt could even be a man of the match contender. And how can you be a man of the match contender when you concede four goals? It's incredible. So.

9:13Yoro was good. Luke Shaw actually played well. Deleuze was OK. Ahmad played well. Casemiro played well. Bruno played well. The front three. Cesco had a bit of an off day, but I wouldn't say it was terrible. Yeah, I think it was a very, very good performance from Manchester United The drop-off is because of the subs That's what it is And a bit of complacency But we are learning as we go along I mean, you know, we're into the top four, right? Let me just say this People are obsessed with Man United being back We're back We're not back Amram's going to come out and play it down Because that's what he will do Of course we're not back We're not back We beat Liverpool a lot of people said it could have gone either way.

9:56We've beaten Brighton, who are ridiculously inconsistent and play a way that they're going to get battered a few times if they play badly. We're not back. We've won three games in a row and we've put ourselves in a league position that makes this season interesting. Whereas two weeks ago, I was worried where this season might go. We're now in and amongst it. It's exciting. It's intriguing. We've got two tough away games coming up now. If you win those two, we can have a chat about being back. But if we lose one of those, people will be moaning again because they're moaning when we've won 4-2 about Dorgoo.

10:31So we're not back. We're on the ladder and the ladder is tall. And what we've done is we've gone to Anfield, we've deserved to win and we've played a certain way. And then we've gone to Brighton, we played Brighton at home and we've beaten them in a different way, both with less than 50 % possession. So we're starting to see a bit of a vision, aren't we? We're starting to see what we're all about. We're starting to be a team that transitions quickly and defends well. And that's probably going to work really well next week and against Spurs. So I think we just take it game to game. The challenge will be at Manchester United is you never, ever get to a point where you go, we're back because you always want to do more.

11:17When we won the treble, we wanted to do it again, even though it was impossible. When you finish third, you want to win the league next year. And if we can get into the top four and stay, because we're not really in the top four, are we? You're not in the top four till Monday morning when the game week is over. We're in the top four tonight. We want to be in the top four or five on a Monday morning when everyone's played. And then when we get there, you got to stay there. There's no point getting there and going with air and then dropping off. So every week is going to be a challenge. Every week, we've got to see that consistency.

11:53And I think the number one thing I want to say, and I've not heard anybody say it yet, is that a lot of people thought after Liverpool, we were going to drop off again, like we have done year after year after year. Brighton will drop off. I guarantee it. I can see it again. We'll beat Liverpool and then we'll drop off against Brighton. And that needs to be the headline tonight. Because how many of these players are we going to give high scores to? We didn't drop off. We started a little bit slow, but it was nil-nil. We should have had a penalty and we sparked into life. And we absolutely battered them to 3-0.

12:29And then it got to 3-2, 4-2. But remember, the big takeaway tonight is put that on your face. Smile. United have won. You can watch the highlights. It's three wins in a row. We deserve to win. There's no luck involved. And we've done it three times in a row. And we've done it after a big game. You know, we always turn up in the big games. It's these games where we mess up. So it's another step up the ladder. And that's all we can do. And we'll slip down. It's going to be a game of snakes and ladders all season, in my opinion. We'll climb ladders, we'll slip down. The big thing is the ladders need to be big and the snakes need to be small so that we're always progressing.

13:11So if we're at level four now and we hit a snake next week, let's only drop to level one and then we go up again. And that's what this season is, snakes and ladders for me. There will be slips and there will be climbs. And it's a fantastic thing today. We should be rejoicing that we've scored four goals at Old Trafford. The flags at the start of the game set it up perfectly. The players responded well to the penalty that should have been given. and after a Liverpool game, the light switch hasn't gone off. It's gone on. And that to me is the big thing. That's the big story. Soy says, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself and saying this too often, but Mbemo will be our captain one day.

13:49Dorghu will learn he's young, says Anwar. The team is slowly growing, will adapt to changes, says Mrs Stone. Is this the start of a Man United comeback, says Imad. I don't know. I'm going to take it game to game because the trouble with sitting here and saying comeback is that if we lose next week, it's Amrim out again. What I want to know in the comments from people is if you're Amrim out, are you back? You know, some people have been very vocally Amrim out, some after Grimsby, some after Spurs in the Europa League final, some after Brentford, you know, some after the Manchester derby. There's a lot of people that have been Amrim out.

14:27Are you coming back? And why are you coming back? And will you flip again? Or are you going to stay Amrim out? You know, because there was a lot of people in that position. And I'm sort of like going, this is why some of us never said it because it's like, I don't want to sack another manager. I agree with some of the criticism, but, you know, it's a long way back. But I think he's going to get the season. Do we just get behind him for the season? Can we get the Amrim out crew back and actually get behind the manager for the season? I don't like Dorga in the team, by the way. I still don't like the midfield.

15:00I still think I'll get proven right on both of those things. But while they're winning, I'll applaud it and say, look, the one person that matters doesn't matter if I'm right. And it doesn't matter if you're right. It matters if the manager's right. That's the most important thing. Jimmy Johnson, thank you very much for your super chat. Fake fans hating on this great club. Get better, not bitter, says Red. Not about the foul. It's the pass from Dorgo after the corner. Don't think problems occur if we don't concede the silly counter, says Emil. The attackers have been great, but what a signing Lemenses is like Schofield.

15:29Main, who's one of those players who was average after the hype died down, he's slower than my granny. So sigh. Why do you have to say that? Mark, to all the haters, we win. Please stop the negativity. Let's be united for once as Lee Caketown. Right, I've got to do the player ratings. I've got to do the player ratings because I've got to be on That's Football in 10 minutes. We have got a fan forum though and it will be a big fan forum tonight because I can only do a short match reaction. 10 hours on my feet, traffic, noise, everybody needing something from me. My head is spinning. I just need the world to stop for one second.

15:58But then I get home, shoes off, phone out and i open moto casino hundreds of slots classic table games it's my instant reset the variety i want in the quiet i need moto casinos the social casino board were prohibited no purchase necessary visit moto.us for more details download the moto casino app today must be 21 plus moto casino america social casino so lamens for me 7.5 yeah i i think i 7.5 for me as i said, I think he's making such a big difference. I love that cross where he tracked it. Made some good saves, some good claims. I think it was a 7.5. Lenny Yoroh, 7. Good game from him.

16:44DeLitt, 7. I'm tempted to say 8. Yeah, I agree. High five. I think he was brilliant. I just think he's the best centre-back in the Premier League at the moment, probably bar Gabriele at Arsenal. He's just brilliant. Some of the tackles he won, some of the passing, absolutely brilliant. He's going to be very unlucky because I can't give him man of the match, but he was brilliant. Luke Shaw, I would give him a seven. I thought he played quite well. Yeah, I thought he played well today. I'll give him credit. I did think he'd play well. Amad, Amad's probably pushing a 7.5 for me. Seven for you. Happy with that.

17:24Yeah, look, it just looked good. Physically tenacious. Very, very good. Casemiro, you've got to give him a seven for the goal as well. Tidy, no yellow cards. I will be honest about Bruno and Casemiro, right? Because I watch football and so do you. Before the goal, they were getting run through. There was so much space, they were getting run through. As soon as we didn't get the penalty and then we scored, we could compact the team. We didn't have to open up the game. And when that happened, they took control of the game. If we're 1-0 up, I think the midfield works. When we've got to chase a game, the space opens up.

18:01So that's why the early goal is always important. Bruno, I thought, was touching an 8 tonight. I'm going to give him a 7.5, but not quite as good as Deleuze. So 7.5 for me, for Bruno. Very good game for both of our midfielders today. Deleuze, I'll give him a 6.5 and be generous. I don't think he was terrible But that one in the first half Where Welbeck burned away I just don't think he's very good I'm sorry, I do not think he's very good Chance doesn't agree with Bruno He thought he was terrible I don't know, I thought Bruno played really well Attacking wise, I thought Bruno was brilliant You know And Bermot, I would give him My man of the match 8.5 Yeah, I mean And the show was going to be called Kunya Masterclass, but the Mbamo goal at the end, he stole it from them.

18:52These two lads are just, you know, a joy to behold at the moment. Yeah, I just I think they're brilliant. They epitomize what Man United should be. And I'm not saying Mbamo and Kunya would get in a classic Man United side. I mean, they wouldn't, would they? They're not going to get in a team with Rooney and Ronaldo. Of course they're not. You know, we're nowhere near that level. But they stand out way ahead of the attacks that we've had over the recent years because they just get it. You know, they're players that have fought in worse teams. And now they're at Man United and it's almost like the aura.

19:27You know, it's like I fought at Brentford and Wolves for this opportunity and I'm going to keep fighting and I'm going to grab it. And their consistency and mentality is just brilliant. And I think it's going to give us a chance. I really do. Obviously, I like De Ligt. I like Lemens, Yoro. A lot of people played well today, but I think Cunha and Mbremo are the two players that are going to give us a chance of top five. I think they are mentality kings and every player we buy now, we should be looking at those two and going, that's the criteria. For years, we ignored this. We bought the wrong types of players, the Sanchos, people like that, bad mentality players that don't fit Manchester United.

20:11These two lads, mentality, ability, age profile, that's the blueprint now. Because if you can get two midfielders like them and, you know, fullback, you know, wherever, whatever you want, that's what we need. It's not just about the goals. It's what they've done. It's, you know, where they've come from. It's wanting to come to Manchester United. The mentality, the belief, the aggression. They've just got the right, they're professionals. They're professional footballers. and it's not about brand. It's not about, you know, reputation. It's just football. They're footballers and we need to bring more players like this into the club.

20:50Kunya would be an eight for me. Same as De Ligt. You know, they were the three best players on the pitch. De Ligt, Kunya and Mbemo, but Mbemo, my man of the match. Sesko probably a 6.5 today. I think that he wasn't as bad as some people think, but he probably could have got a goal today and wasn't quite on it. But, you know, I wouldn't say he played badly. Six is average, 6.5, 7, whatever, you know. Aidan Heaven, 6.5, got the goal assist for... I don't think some of the players that came on were bad. I just think what happened is there was too many subs. And, you know, you change half a team and we became disjointed.

21:30I think if you brought Menuh on on his own, we'd have been okay. If we brought Dorgi on on his own, we'd have been okay. but we changed half a team. It was a great assist by Eden Heaven. Agarte came on and did well, actually. 6.5. I know he was only on for a little bit, but he won some tackles. He won some fouls and he gave us some stability. You know, if we hadn't brought him on, that could have gone wrong. We needed that in the midfield. Maynou was probably a six, to be fair. He did struggle a little bit. Same with Dorgu and same with Xerxe. They all struggled. I mean, Xerxe didn't do well on the goal, did he?

22:04He's got to win that header against the players smaller than him. But it's not, it's not, it's not, it's not, it's not criticism. We don't need criticism. As for Amorim, a strong 7.5 for me. I agree. The subs were a problem, but it could have gone the other way. Our subs could have worked and we could have won 5-0 and Brighton's could have not worked. Theirs worked, ours didn't. Sometimes that happens, you know? 81 % for Mainu, sorry, not for Mainu, Embermo, imagine if it was. brilliant absolutely brilliant performance from him thoroughly deserves it 60 ,000 watching absolutely brilliant thank you everybody for tuning in as always I've had to be a little bit quick because I've got to get over to the fan forum but I've actually gone very very quickly through all that so I've got a little bit of time just to catch up on some comments Sesko got an assist as well so Xavier yeah 6.5 and we should we shouldn't have not have both of them we needed goals in the team.

23:01That's what we bought them for, says Spy. Man United and Swagger throughout the match took me back to the old Man United to Sravant. I mean, we're a long way from that, mate, but we're also a long way from some of the shit we've seen in recent years. We're definitely better than we have been for a long time. Big thing as well, we're scoring goals against the runner plate. Look, goals are entertaining. Two goals at Anfield, four goals today. You know, if we're scoring goals, it's entertaining. You can forgive the, you know, running through the midfield, the chances that we give up. If we're scoring goals, I'd rather win 4-3 than, you know, Oli Ball of 1-0 or whatever like that, or, you know, whoever.

23:40We are scoring a lot of goals. We are going to lose games though. I'm not going to run away with this. I'm not going to sit here and say we're winning the league or we're going to get top four. Like, you know, there's probably going to be people out there that were hammering out two weeks ago who are now saying, I'm hammering in, we're going to win the league. And then when we lose again, there'll be hammering out again. like the real fans are the ones that can you know be pragmatic and look at it um pragmatism says that we're gonna lose games of course we are but we've got to win games the great thing is we're not drawing and the longer that goes on the better i don't mind losing a game if it's surrounded by two wins either side um and the confidence is growing and we're beating different types of seams and we're good at home i said that on friday night we actually are good at home so So you were good at home against Arsenal.

24:24We've not had a bad game at home yet. We haven't. And we won every... Oh, no, no. Arsenal, we lost. But we played well. How much of this improvement is down to Sir Jim? None, Karen. Absolutely none. First home win versus Brighton since 2022, says Bart. Let's enjoy the great results, says Ever Greg. I love this team, but at the same time, I'm glad we don't have European football, says Amit. Thank you very much. Right. Let me just make sure that I've done everything I need. I've done that. That's great.

24:58That's done as well. I've got four minutes.

25:05I'm in press conference.

25:10There we go. You've got a choice here. You can go over to the fan forum and you can watch the lads in the studio. and I would go there because they're going to have lots of different opinions to me as well. Or you can come over to That's Football and watch Brentford against Liverpool where I hope Brentford win and we stay above Liverpool. That's what we're doing it for. Or you can watch the fan forum then come over to That's Football or you can put both on. It's up to you. Choices, choices, choices and they're all good tonight. United win. That's what matters. Remember, we always celebrate a United win even if we're lucky and shit.

25:42So we should celebrate wins where we're brilliant and good. take care everyone you've been brilliant and good tonight I've been Mark Goldbridge thanks for watching and I'll see you in a bit take care

26:20We'll be right back. U.S. for more details.