Brighton Stuns Manchester United at Old Trafford

Michael Carrick walked down the Old Trafford tunnel insisting: “I take responsibility.” He knew exactly why.

Manchester United led 2-0, had the tie where they wanted it, and still contrived to lose 3-2 to Brighton. A cup exit, a bruised dressing room, and a manager who refused to hide behind his players.

“The start of the game and the end of the game is completely different,” Carrick told Sky Sports. “It didn't feel like the same game… We had the game exactly where we wanted it and let it get away from us in a big way.”

United flew out of the blocks. The night seemed to belong to Shea Lacey, the academy talent who capped a dream start with a goal that should have framed the evening. Carrick called it “everything we hoped for, even more really,” a moment for everyone who had followed Lacey’s journey through the youth ranks.

Then the game flipped.

United lost control, Brighton grew, and the mood inside Old Trafford turned from celebration to disbelief. Carrick didn’t sugar-coat it.

“The performance towards the end of the second half, that's on me,” he said. “We can't accept that as a group. We're out of this competition and we've got to get back to winning football matches… We all have to get better.”

He repeated the theme on BBC Radio 5 Live. The tone was the same: accountability, not excuses.

“We ended up with a pretty disappointing night,” he admitted. “We can't be in a position like that and lose the game in that manner… I accept that. That's on me. It'll need to be better than that.”

Carrick also pointed to a wider pattern: the late goal conceded against Everton, the key moment in the Manchester City game, the sense of small setbacks snowballing.

“It can all of a sudden roll into something a bit greater,” he said. “We have to be humble and take that. We have to find the answers for Sunday.”

Hurzeler’s Brighton hold their nerve

On the other side, Fabian Hurzeler cut a very different figure. Calm, clear, and quietly delighted.

Brighton were 2-0 down at Old Trafford. Many teams fold there. His didn’t.

“I think we started the game really well. We conceded two easy goals and then we kept and stuck to our plan,” he told Sky Sports. “Of course, you're 2-0 down, you can go in one direction and say the game is done… or you can believe. You have to believe in your teammates. You have to believe in yourself.”

The belief grew with every minute. The longer the game went, the more Brighton imposed themselves.

“The longer the game went, the better we were and in the end I think we won in a deserved way,” Hurzeler said.

He didn’t pretend the opening spell was clean. Brighton were jittery, loose on the ball, and punished.

“I think the bad thing at the beginning was we were quite nervous. We made a lot of technical mistakes and then afterwards the players grew into the game,” he added. “In the end, we completely controlled the game and we had plenty of chances to score another goal.”

From 2-0 down to total control. At Old Trafford. Hurzeler’s verdict felt justified.

‘5-a-side defending’ and United’s growing problem

If Carrick chose ownership, the pundits chose bluntness.

Jamie Redknapp, on Sky Sports, tore into United’s defending for Brighton’s second goal, focusing on young defenders Ayden Heaven and Leny Yoro.

“The two of them are really far apart. That's OK, it's the modern game,” he said, before zeroing in on Heaven’s reaction as Pascal Gross burst through midfield.

“Instead of complaining that he doesn't get the ball, he has to get across and sprint 20 yards… Instead, he's on his heels, he doesn't anticipate the danger. Leny Yoro does really poorly as well… Instead he's jogging. It's so poor from their perspective.”

Redknapp didn’t stop there.

“What Leny Yoro does, I have no idea. What kind of an effort is this to stop the ball? How easy is that? This isn't a 5-a-side competition. This is a big competition. You have to go and be aggressive. They both showed their inexperience and if that doesn't change, they won't play for Man United regularly.”

Clinton Morrison, speaking at Old Trafford for BBC Radio 5 Live, backed Carrick’s broader work but questioned the squad depth and the balance of his selection.

“You have to remember the job Michael Carrick did for them last season when Ruben Amorim was struggling,” Morrison said. “He gave his squad players the chance today and it goes to show his squad players are not good enough to come in at this moment in time.

“I like Heaven and Leny Yoro but they're young players who need to be given time. Playing them both together, could that be a gamble?”

For Morrison, the issues stretch beyond one cup tie.

“They're conceding goals in the Premier League as well, so I don't think it's tactical. I just don't think they have got it right at the moment.

“Sunday is a big game because you don't want to go into the international break off three losses in a row.”

All eyes on Sunday

Carrick knows it. The players know it. The mood around the club underlines it.

“We want to win and we want to win quickly,” Carrick said. “The next match is Sunday and that's all I'm thinking about right now.”

He talked about evolving as a group, learning to handle difficult spells, and guiding his young side through nights like this. But the table and the fixture list don’t wait for development curves.

“We've had small, little things that have gone against us in the last week or two… but we shouldn't finish the game in that manner with the position we were in,” he said. “We have to find the answers for Sunday.”

Two defeats behind them. A third looming as a threat. An international break on the other side.

Sunday won’t just be another game. It will tell United exactly how quickly they’re capable of growing up.