Amad was impressive but another Man Utd star was a big shining light despite wretched loss to Brighton

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In the sea of poor results this season for Manchester United, the rise of Amad as a key player has been a constant positive to lean on.

Manchester United lost to Brighton (again!), this time 3-1 at Old Trafford and pretty much everyone was below par except, of course, Amad.

The Ivorian was a willing runner and made things happen, often looking like the only player who would create something in a game in which United finished with a single shot on target.

However, in a game of slim pickings, Ruben Amorim will be glad to see that another Man Utd star seems to have finally turned a corner.

Joshua Zirkzee continues bounce-back form

The last time Joshua Zirkzee started at Old Trafford, he was hooked off after 32 minutes against Newcastle and the fans cheered that sub.

Since then, he has gone on somewhat of a redemption tour by making the most of his minutes off the bench, coinciding with Rasmus Hojlund’s form collapsing.

Amorim rewarded him for those positive cameos by starting him against Brighton and he broke the cycle of United’s starting striker dropping a stinker.

As expected at this point, there was no goal for the Dutchman but the improvement from what Hojlund has been doing recently was immense.

He got the ball to stick almost every time it was played to him and the weight of his passes was perfect almost every time and most importantly, they were progressive too.

He didn’t get dragged into a wrestling match with the defenders and instead, focused on playing the ball and getting his team up the pitch.

Hojlund got about 15 minutes off the bench including injury time and nothing he showed in that time did anything to give Amorim a headache for the Rangers game.

Zirkzee is on the ascent.

Zirkzee coming good is crucial for Man Utd

It was just two weeks ago that Zirkzee was on the brink of United exit, with Juventus and Thiago Motta interested in a reunion.

Since then, the Juventus door closed and credit to Zirkzee, he put his head down and bounced back from the nadir of his United spell by returning to shades of top form.

This United squad has a litany of problems as it is and a new striker is definitely needed in the summer but in the meantime, if Amorim can rely upon one striker even semi-consistently, it saves a headache.

Currently, Zirkzee looks much more likely to be that striker than Hojlund, a thought unthinkable two weeks ago.

Fair play to him.