You know, I think we should stop with the optimism, I think we should stop giving ourselves any bit of hope with this club anymore.
I don't know what makes us think that certain games means a United win. I'm including myself in this btw because I too, thought that we would win this game.
Every week, we complain about the same things: players not good enough, the manager is the problem, #INEOSOut, #Glazersout.
Yet every week we still go into games with some belief that United could actually go on to win the game.
With a derby up next, I'm sure there will be those saying this once more that perhaps there's a chance United get a positive result for the simple fact that it's a derby.
This performance against Brighton was shit, utter, stinky, shit.
It may not have been one of our worst performances of the season (which is telling you something) but it was the next best (or worst) thing.
Going into a tournament that we won not so long ago, with a chance of winning our only piece of silverware this campaign after not having done so last season, to rectify the wrongs of the early Carabao Cup exit (which was earlier than usual because we played a round that began before the competition proper even started due to us being so shit and finishing 15th last season), being at home, playing a formation that was supposed to make us better, with players in their best positions (mainly Bruno), and yet, and yet, we were still so diabolically, inexplicably awful.
And Brighton played a second-string team.
We literally had everything we wanted on our side and still couldn't perform.
This is now the fewest games we will play in a season (40) in 111 years!
Did Fletcher get some things wrong? Yes, yes he did. I thought starting Mount was maybe the wrong call (i would've tried Lacey or kept Dorgu on the wing), he could've taken Dalot off earlier and maybe not dropped Bruno into midfield because we've seen how poor he can be in that position and also the fact that he had to play a full 90 minutes (a decent portion of it out of position) after just returning from injury. That's a risk.
However, what more could he have done?
A few of these players have been letting down the club for many years to a point where I don't blame them anymore.
This is where you have to look at the owners.
This was a banner in the Stretford End, the same one that was at the Burnley game calling for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS to be removed from the club.
As much as Ruben Amorim got a lot wrong, the one thing he got spot on were his interviews. The former United boss spoke with such honesty it was refreshing. While it may have led to his sacking, it was almost as if he made a personal sacrifice when speaking so openly about the board and how 'they need to do their jobs'.
That post-match presser has caused there to be more light shed onto the owners and board than there's ever been.
We do discuss them as being the main problem but that also seemed to take a back seat as the manager and players on the field have been as pathetic as those off of it. As we see what's happening on the pitch regularly, the focus is on that more than on the way the club is run.
With Amorim's presser though, the news that came out that there are no real plans to strengthen in January and the club wanting formational changes despite hiring a 3-4-3 manager, more people are coming to the realization that we should be focused on the Glazers and INEOS.
They don't appear to know what they're doing and if anything, have made things much worse than they were, which was pretty bad before the last two years of INEOS.
The board think that signing young players with potential will be the solution. We know that with youngsters there will be inconsistencies as Fletcher himself said. Are we in a position to be taking such risks?
This is why the recruitment is a problem as well
These last couple of reviews hasn't really been about the games themselves. We've seen these type of performances so many times before that it is unsurprising at this point. The only surprising thing is how much optimism there still is heading into each game. We are too naïve and have too much of a fool's hope that things could get better.
The players showed a real lack of urgency and intensity after the first 15 minutes. Once Brighton scored their opener in the 12th minute, it was pretty easy sailing for the Seagulls. At times, it looked like a training game for them.
I don't understand how this set of players can look out of sorts and so dysfunctional in a formation that they've played in many times before. They actually looked good in the first half against Newcastle in which Amorim started off with a back four.
This tells you that it was never a formation, system or necessarily a manager problem. The managers/head coaches/interims/caretakers may not have been good enough but the players are more the problem than all of those.
Why is it that the manager has to take the fall for things? Surely a club who doesn't back them with the players they need and removing those they don't are more the problem than any coach? Why are we still having to use players like Dalot who's been at the club since Jose Mourinho's days and seems to be playing for the opposition more than United.
Those type of decisions where managers have to pick players who haven't been good enough for many years should have been removed by getting rid of deadwood.
In my last review, I said that I was tired, tired of seeing the same shit game after game, week after week and nothing being done to rectify that.
And I still am.
I fear that without a complete takeover, removal of the debt, removal of a lot of this squad, and without truly backing a manager, we won't be seeing the Man Utd we all know for a long, long time.
Ratings
Lammens - 6
Dalot - 3
Yoro - 6
Martinez - 6.5
Dorgu - 6.5 MOTM
Mainoo - 5
Ugarte - 5.5
Mount - 5
Bruno - 6
Cunha - 5
Sesko - 6
Zirkzee - 5
Lacey - 6
Casemiro - 6
Maguire - 6
Darren Fletcher - 6
Man Utd lose 2-1 to Brighton in the FA Cup exiting the competition at the first stage | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)