Erik ten Hag found Manchester United solution to problem Pep Guardiola had highlighted

Combating Guardiola's praise

It was around 10 days ago when Pep Guardiola labelled Brighton as the best team in the world for building-up play from the back, using their goalkeeper and central defenders to draw pressure on and then spring into life when the opposition were out of shape.

Stopping that possession-based approach of Roberto De Zerbi has been beyond plenty of teams this season, so it was interesting to see how United would go about it.

They avoided committing too many to the press for most of the game, aware that is what Brighton want. They also defended in a 3-2 shape to which Luke Shaw was key.

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This was Shaw's seventh start at centre-back this season and as comfortable as he's looked in that position, he's never quite had a test like this before.

What central defenders want is a static centre-forward to mark, someone who can give them their bearings and keep them in position all game. Brighton don't do that, they use two forwards who play more like No. 10s, dropping into midfield to provide overloads during their build-up play.

To combat that, United used Victor Lindelof as a spare man at the back, while Shaw pushed up to mark one of the forwards, which began as Julio Enciso and Danny Welbeck and became Alexis Mac Allister and Deniz Undav. Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Diogo Dalot looked after Karou Mitoma and Solly March.

Brighton always manage to create overloads or free men, however, and almost always they were the full-backs, Pascal Gross of Pervis Estupinan. It was an approach that worked for United given their lack of influence in the final third.

Shaw's man-to-man positioning also meant there were occasions when he had to retreat rapidly, such as when the