Ruben Amorim was right about Manchester United kids at Brentford - and Chido Obi proved why

Ruben Amorim had called it. "Not the best moment" to play the kids, he said recently. Manchester United's young guns might now also understand why their manager was cautious about chucking them in at the deep end this season.

If this is a case of sink or swim, then the third youngest team in Premier League history were gasping for air at the Gtech Community Stadium. This won't be an afternoon that will wreck promising careers, but it could certainly be a setback.

Tyler Fredricson had a promising start but was replaced by Victor Lindelof as he began to struggle. Chido Obi might have signed up to Rasmus Hojlund's strikers' union on his return to the away dressing rooms after this chastening effort.

It's worth revisiting Amorim's comments from a couple of weeks ago about the danger of throwing the kids in during a domestic campaign that has become an embarrassment to the club.

"It's not the best moment or the best season to put some kids to play because again they need a strong base to really show what they can do, but in this moment we need to do it," Amorim said.

You can't really argue with that, but you can also see why United's head coach was reluctant to do what he had to do at Brentford. The result was a 16th defeat of the season and another rough afternoon.

Before kick-off, there had been excitement at the United line-up. At 17 years and 155 days, Obi became the youngest player to start a Premier League game for United. He was the junior member of a very junior team. With an average age of 22 years and 270 days, this was the third youngest team to start a Premier League game for any club.

It didn't feel like that was the case when the team dropped, but youngsters such as 20-year-olds Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro