Three mistakes Ruben Amorim made in Manchester United defeat to Brighton

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Manchester United slumped to a 3-1 loss against Brighton and Hove Albion at Old Trafford.

Manchester United’s game with Brighton was always going to be the real test of Ruben Amorim’s men amid an improved 2025 up until this point.

After a terrible December, United rallied with draws against Liverpool and Arsenal, including a penalty shootout victory, before beating bottom side Southampton, amid a scare.

A game against a talented Brighton side, similar the the Bournemouth team that caused United problems, was always going to pose problems.

Manchester United lost 3-1 to Brighton, having gone in level at half-time, the overall level of performance simply was not good enough.

So what went wrong – could Ruben Amorim have done more? Let’s dive in…

Leny Yoro should have dropped to the bench

Manchester United’s improvements against Liverpool and Arsenal were driven by a solid back three of Lisandro Martinez, Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt.

This was broken up against Southampton with Leny Yoro coming in, with Harry Maguire in need of a rest.

Leny Yoro performed poorly against the Saints, and against a talented Brighton side, he was also found wanting.

Meanwhile Lisandro Martinez did not play a single minute, and he was missed in terms of United building the play out from the back.

Amorim should have stuck with the same front three he started the year with, and rotated in the Europa League instead if he wanted to use Yoro again.

Toby Collyer needed to start the game

Manchester United’s team should be a meritocracy right now, where players who earn a start, are rewarded with one.

Toby Collyer helped Manchester United’s comeback against Brighton, anchoring the midfield in the last 30 minutes.

Collyer’s performance was praised by Rio Ferdinand, with supporters hailing the midfielder as ‘really important’.

Collyer was a real difference maker – yet reverted back to his usual bench role instead of starting as we predicted he might.

A chance to start against his former club would have been perfect for Collyer, who would have been desperate to show he was right to leave Brighton.

• READ: Who is Toby Collyer? Meet the Manchester United starlet who has been compared to N’Golo Kante

Manchester United players lacked focus

While you can attribute some of the errors to Manchester United’s players themselves, there is a theme that has emerged in recent games at Old Trafford.

United have either conceded goals early in the first half or the second, showing a lack of concentration and focus.

This impacted United after just five minutes against Brighton, after four minutes at home to Newcastle, and in the first five minutes after half-time vs Nottingham Forest and then Bournemouth.

After a while this stops becoming coincidence, and becomes a theme. And this falls on coach Ruben Amorim to solve.

So while not a specific ‘mistake’ solely attributed to this game, you could argue the Manchester United boss has erred by being so far unable to fix it, sending his players out clearly lacking focus, giving themselves an uphill task.