Manchester United are a club in serious turmoil as deep-rooted issues on and off the field continue to surface. The latest of those was Antony being banished from the squad, joining Jadon Sancho on the naughty step.
On the field, United were unable to rise up in the face of adversity as a grim 3-1 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford piled further misery onto Erik ten Hag.
Following two defeats from their opening four Premier League games, the manner of those performances needed addressing on the training ground with the international break acting as a timely intervention, allowing his squad to feel refreshed, regroup and work on their shortcomings.
Although it appeared in the early stages against Brighton that the Dutchman had worked his magic on the training ground – starting fast out of the blocks – any excitement was soon expelled as the Seagulls pounced on their opponent's mental vulnerability, taking the lead early on through former United man Danny Welbeck.
Once Roberto De Zerbi's side took the lead, they began to inflict their attacking swagger onto proceedings as second-half strikes from Pascal Gross and Joao Pedro saw them clinch their fourth consecutive victory over United with journalist Samuel Luckhurst describing their performance as a "full-blown crisis".
Admittedly, there were several who contributed to this crisis, including Lisandro Martinez, who set the tone for a disastrous display, failing to replicate the form last season that saw teammate Luke Shaw label him as an "absolute monster" prior to his injury.
The Argentine suffered for his lack of match sharpness and was terrorized by Brighton's live wire attack, winning just one of his ground duels, tackling once, intercepting once and being dispossessed on four occasions, as per Sofascore.
Martinez wasn't the only one to let his manager down on the day as Scott McTominay failed to grasp his opportunity to impress in midfield, putting in a performance to forget.
How did Scott McTominay perform against Brighton?
Once labelled as "special" by former manager Jose Mourinho, Scott McTominay's stock has fallen dramatically since that admission was made, and although he's a hero for his country – scoring a brace against Spain in March – the Scotland international rarely gets the opportunity to start for his club.
With ten Hag moving to a narrow formation, accommodating three central midfielders to allow Bruno Fernandes more positional freedom in the final third, McTominay was given an opportunity to start on the right of United's midfield three, flanking Casemiro and Christian Eriksen.
Although this system meant Marcus Rashford could drift from his position centrally into the left channel and support Rasmus Hojlund, their attempts to control possession and go more attacking were undone by the explosiveness of Brighton's counter-attack.
Roberto De Zerbi's side blew their defence wide open, exploiting the narrow system deployed by Ten Hag and bypassing the three loose midfielders with ease as McTominay endured a torrid afternoon.
While Ten Hag once labelled the Scot as someone who "never gives up", this display conflicted with that comment as the 6 foot 3 dud was non-existent throughout, easily bypassed out of possession, and failed to progress the ball up the field, highlighting his weakness in possession.
This is evidenced by the fact that McTominay's 22 touches were far lower than Andre Onana's 47, losing possession on three occasions, making only one interception and zero tackles.
With that said, Luckhurst labelled his performance as "inexplicable", which couldn't be any closer to the truth and as previously stated by Roy Keane last season, if United are serious about challenging towards the top of the Premier League in the future, McTominay will never be good enough in their quest to achieve that aim.
With that claim still likely ringing in the Scot's ears, Ten Hag must heed that advice and drop him from the squad next time out.
