Four things we learnt as Man United lose 3-4 against Brentford | OneFootball

Manchester United travelled to the Gtech Community Stadium to take on Brentford in the Premier League this afternoon.

Ruben Amorim named a much changed team ahead of the second leg of the Europa League semi-final versus Athletic Club on Thursday.

Altay Bayindir started in place of Andre Onana and Patrick Dorgu and Harry Amass started in the wingback positions. The back three consisted of Matthijs de Ligt, Tyler Fredricson and Luke Shaw.

Manuel Ugarte partnered Kobbie Mainoo in the middle of the park and Mason Mount started instead of captain Bruno Fernandes.

Alejandro Garnacho played alongside Chido Obi, who started his first game for the Red Devils.

Here are four things we learnt from the match.

Mount loves it at Brentford

Mason Mount has only scored two goals during his Man United career and curiously, both have arrived at the Gtech Community stadium.

He found the back of the net in the 96th minute last season but was on the scoreboard much earlier today.

Mount side-footed home from close range to give the Red Devils the lead and score his first of the season.

Amorim has been incredibly complimentary of the potential for Mount in his system and United fans will be hoping the Englishman can finally deliver on his clear potential.

Fredricson and Amass struggle with Brentford’s physicality

Both youngsters played in the 0-1 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers and impressed immensely during the game.

Nonetheless, Brentford was a step up in level for the youngsters.

For the home side’s first goal, Amass was well beaten in a key duel which led to Luke Shaw’s own goal.

Fredricson was also all at the sea for Brentford’s second goal as he completely lost track of Kevin Schade, who headed home.

Both players are very raw and deserve much more time to get up to speed with the Premier League but today showed that they aren’t ready to be considered serious first team options just yet.

De Ligt injury concern

Whilst United will want to finish as high as possible in the league table for financial reasons, preventing injuries will have been the main assignment for today’s match.

Therefore, it will have come as a great disappointment to see De Ligt hobbling off the pitch in the first half.

The Dutchman had only just returned from injury, coming off the bench in the second half in Bilbao.

Sadly, it looks like the defender could well miss the rest of the season but supporters will hope the injury is not as serious as it looks ahead of a potential Europa League final.

Garnacho finally gets reward for hard work

Garnacho has taken his fair share of criticism this season owing to his wastefulness in front of goal.

Nonetheless, he has still been one of United’s most productive players in this campaign and picked up a goal and an assist in today’s match.

He worked hard down the left for Mount’s opener and curled in a stunning strike for his side’s second.

The Argentine will be critical for Thursday night’s titanic tussle with Athletic Club and will hopefully take some confidence into the game after his scorcher this afternoon.

Featured image Richard Heathcote via Getty Images

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