Brentford show they do not need Bryan Mbeumo to beat Manchester United | OneFootball

Manchester United could certainly take a leaf out of Brentford’s book.

Despite having a vastly more expensively assembled squad, which included Brentford’s best player last season in Bryan Mbeumo, Ruben Amorim’s side were deservedly beaten 3-1 at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Brentford, under the stewardship of a new boss in Keith Andrews, attacked with directness, pace and purpose. Their opponents, on the other hand, were largely the opposite, content to move the ball around slowly from side to side, far away from the Brentford goal in the first half.

It could, and probably should, have been a heavier defeat for United. Their goalkeeping issues have been well documented and have been a constant source of trouble for Amorim, but Altay Bayindir should shoulder none of the blame for their latest defeat. He was in inspired form, making several top saves to keep his side in it.

Igor Thiago got the first goal of the game when he latched on to Jordan Henderson’s long ball over the top. His first touch took him a little wider than he would have liked but he made no mistake with the finish, firing the ball into the top of the net to give Bayindir no chance.

It was a clear game plan by Brentford to hit early, direct balls over the top of the defence and it paid off. Henderson had already tried it on a couple of occasions before the opening goal and caught United’s back three of Mathjis de Ligt, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw napping. De Ligt and Shaw found themselves in the opposition half while Maguire had dropped back into his own, playing Thiago onside.

United were caught out by another long ball down the right-hand side of their defence for the second goal, Thiago cleverly touching the ball through to Kevin Schade, whose shot was well saved by Bayindir, but the Brazilian striker was on hand to tap home and grab his second goal of the game.

The game up to that point had drawn comparisons to the 4-0 defeat the Red Devils suffered at the Brentford Community Stadium under Erik ten Hag back in 2022. At the time it was seen as a real low point, but things have in fact gotten far worse since then.

Benjamin Sesko gave his side a lifeline before the break, scoring on the third time of asking after seeing his first two efforts denied, to net his first goal for the club since his summer move from RB Leipzig. Caoimhin Kelleher had felt he was fouled by Mbeumo when he was nudged off balance while trying to deal with Patrick Dorgu’s looping cross before Sesko fired in, but VAR disagreed.

If Kelleher was to blame for United’s goal then he certainly made amends in the second half, saving a Bruno Fernandes’ penalty after Nathan Collins was adjudged to have pulled back Mbeumo.

Fernandes suggested the referee had a part to play in him missing a penalty against Fulham earlier this season because he had accidentally bumped into him.

The United skipper’s preparation for this spot-kick was far from ideal too, having to wait firstly for a long VAR check to determine whether Collins’ foul was in fact a red card for denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity, which it was deemed not to be, and then even longer when Bees boss Andrews cleverly brought on a couple of substitutes, before Fernandes was finally allowed to take his penalty.

He looked like he had let the delay affect him, and his weak, low penalty was easily stopped by Kelleher.

And with United pushing for a third late on, Brentford again hit their opponents with a devastating counter-attack, with substitute Mathias Jensen cutting in and beating Bayindir with a powerful strike from just outside the box.

The difficult thing to accept for United fans is that this result was entirely predictable. The back three of de Ligt, Maguire and Shaw was ill-equipped to deal with the pace and power of Brentford’s attacking players and this result was not at all a surprising one. Amorim even said as much in his pre-match press conference, admitting he does not know what to expect from his team week to week.

It is approaching a year in charge for Amorim and with hundreds of millions of pounds spent on new signings, there has been very little sign of progress.