Wes Brown picked Bruno Fernandes, Jesse Lingard and Mason Greenwood as the Manchester United players with any credit left from the West Ham United loss.
Speaking on MUTV after United’s underwhelming 1-0 League Cup defeat last night, Brown could only select a trio of players in red that had anything close to a decent display.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side fell at the first hurdle without anything close to a tight run race.
West Ham went ahead inside ten minutes thanks to a measured Manuel Lanzini strike.
Despite attempting 27 shots, the Red Devils accumulated just six on target and never truly looked like troubling Alphonse Areola’s net.
Solskjaer had made 11 changes from the weekend’s win at West Ham, which he might use as an excuse for their out-of-tune exhibition.
Yet, with the likes of Jadon Sancho, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata on the pitch, it’s difficult to defend such a shoddy showing.
Best of a bad bunch
Singling out any positives from the evening can’t have been easy.
However, Brown managed to highlight a few individuals who gave Old Trafford something to cheer.
“For me, I thought Jesse (played well) before he came off,” said the former United defender.
“I think he came off because he was playing well to keep him as fresh as possible for the weekend.
“Mason (Greenwood) as well. When Mason came on, he was causing all sorts of threats down the right-hand side.
“Managed to put a few good balls in. He managed to get a few shots off himself.”
“Bruno (Fernandes), did a few little balls when he came on. But other than that, they were pretty comfortable, the West Ham defenders.”
It said a lot about the tie that Solskjaer had to deal his strongest substitute cards in the second half.
Greenwood replaced Mata with just over an hour played, Fernandes following suit shortly afterwards.
The young Englishmen looked lively and spirited, demonstrating to his teammates how it should have been done.
He had one, slightly scuffed effort saved by Areola, to couple a few darting runs and dangerous crosses.
But it was ultimately too little too late.
Solskjaer is once again staring down the barrel of the gun, with very flimsy armour to protect his vital organs.
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