The matchup Man United should fear

One of the most enjoyable watches of last weekend was Brighton’s performance against Everton. Specifically, left winger Kaoru Mitoma had an incredible day with a goal, 3 other shots on target, a red card drawn on Ashley Young, and involvement in several other high xG moves.

Mitoma had an excellent debut season, but a back injury cost him most of Brighton’s last campaign. Still, he was extremely effective in his limited minutes, especially with his dribbling.

Lots of Brighton’s most dangerous attacks against Everton came from Mitoma slashing into the center of the pitch, causing Everton’s right back and defensive midfielder to make difficult decisions. It was a difficult debut for 21-year-old Tim Iroegbunam, who Mitoma absolutely had in hell for the entire game.

This week, Mitoma is likely to see a much different kind of opponent facing him at defensive midfield. Manchester United appear to be sticking with veteran Casemiro as first choice, and they’re playing in a double pivot with him lined up on the right side, closer to likely one-on-one battles with the opponent’s left winger. He’s more positionally intelligent than Iroegbunam, but much less athletic.

Casemiro looked extremely washed in the back half of last season, but apparently showed up to preseason looking fit and has impressed the Man United coaching staff. He certainly looked like a better version of himself against Fulham, and in the Community Shield against Manchester City.

But Casemiro is still not the mobile defensive midfielder that he was back when he helped Real Madrid win La Decima, and a couple more Champions Leagues after that. He sticks to shielding his back line and doesn’t close down aggressively high up the pitch.

That space between the halfway line and where most of Casemiro’s defensive activity takes place is the space that Mitoma loves to cut into, creating havoc for opposing midfields and opening up space for his teammates. United will need a plan for how to deny that space without opening up other issues, because Casemiro can’t be solely responsible for that job.

We often think of a right back vs. a left winger as a potential great matchup to watch, but in this particular instance, I think the way that Man United’s defensive midfielder plays against Brighton’s left winger will be much more important to the outcome of the game.

—KM

Games we’re watching

• That Brighton vs. Man United game is the early one on Saturday.

• Aston Villa vs. Arsenal is the other marquee game in the Prem this week, with both Champions League sides having looked less than their best, but still getting wins on Matchday 1.

• The Bundesliga kicks off with a banger on Friday, Bayer Leverkusen going away to Borussia Mönchengladbach. Last year was a rough one for Gladbach, but they’ve shed some dead salary and added a great combination: Set piece taker Kevin Stöger and elite aerial target Tim Kleindienst.

• Athletic Bilbao vs. Barcelona gives Nico Williams a chance to cook the team he rejected.

• Napoli is a bit of a soap opera at the moment, I’m interested to see if they can bounce back from a bad loss with a tough game against Bologna.

• A good place to find times and TV/streaming for your territory is LiveSoccerTV.

News and rumours

• Ted’s back from holiday next week, if that counts as news.

• After being quiet for the entire window, Liverpool has decided to go completely nuts, or so the football media has decided. They’re reportedly interested in making late moves for star Napoli winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Everton center back Jarrad Branthwaite, both of whom would likely cost £70m from teams that aren’t thrilled to sell them so late in August. I would be extremely surprised to see either of these happen. They just sound fake.
  
  But some of you are thinking “show me the Kvara radar” and yeah he totally rocks.

• In more “stuff that sounds fake,” Tottenham and Man United are being linked to a £25m move for Barcelona center back Andreas Christensen. If I was a Barca employee or Christensen’s agent looking for ways to drum up interest, those are not the clubs I would have considered to be in the market for a right-footed center back.

• In news that is not fake, Brentford have signed Sepp van den Berg from Liverpool for £20m + £5m in potential add-ons. It’s the second Liverpool backup Brentford have paid top dollar for this window. The people who work at Brentford are smarter than me, but I did not anticipate the hot new market inefficiency being Liverpool backups.

• Crystal Palace and Aston Villa are being linked to Raheem Sterling, and by that I mean, Chelsea have called every team in the Premier League and asked them if they’d have any interest in Sterling. Once again, this is almost certainly only possible if Chelsea eats at least half of his wages.

• Ilkay Gündogan’s move to Manchester City is official, and Arsenal’s signing of Mikel Merino is expected to be official by the weekend. Their rivals have not signed any good midfielders this summer.

• Leeds have replaced Cryscensio Summerville with Largie Ramazani, who, despite his name, is only 5’6”. He’s a fun dribbly winger who arrives from Alaves for £10m.

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