Manchester United get job done but Brighton’s blueprint is one to emulate

Semi-finals, famously, are not for playing but for winning. It doesn’t matter how you get to the final, just that you do so. Brighton will wonder how on earth they didn’t win a game they dominated for long periods, but it is Manchester United who will face Manchester City in the final on 3 June. They just have to hope spite and the desire to prevent City emulating their 1998-99 treble proves a better motivator than overcoming Roberto De Zerbi’s side.

This was not a good United performance, nothing like one. As the Wembley PA belted out “Glory, glory Man United” after the penalty shootout, it felt almost sarcastic. But it doesn’t matter. After the limp exit from the Europa League on Thursday, this felt perhaps a necessary victory. A second domestic final in the same season surely confirms that Erik ten Hag’s side is on the right track; that for the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson left, the club is pointing in the right direction.

This is a weary United, limping on to the season’s end, short on coherence and, increasingly it seemed, self-belief. But they still had enough grit to cling on. David de Gea may not fit the Ten Hag model, may be a player who will have to be phased out as United near their manager’s ideal, but he made a couple of exceptional saves. Aaron Wan‑Bissaka, similarly, probably isn’t the sort of ball‑playing full‑back Ten Hag would prefer, but he had an excellent day shutting down Kaoru Mitoma.

Injuries, of course, played their part. To be without three central defenders is unfortunate but the problem was less at the heart of the back four – although, of course, fears about what lay behind him may have had an impact on Casemiro’s positioning, which in turn affects everything else – and more in the forward line.

Neither Anthony Martial nor Antony could impose themselves, while Bruno Fernandes was in one of those moods where he was as likely to collapse clutching his face as play a devastating through-ball. Still, being captain, playmaker and referee’s assessor all at the same time is enough to leave anybody exhausted.

Diogo Dalot, the Manchester United left-back, celebrates his side’s victory. Photograph: John Patrick Fletcher/Action Plus/Shutterstock

Every game Brighton play these days feels like a rebuke to their opponents. This is how you build a squad. This is how you source young talent. This is how you create a culture than can replicate even when key elements are hived off. It’s not just about blowing hundreds of millions of pounds in the transfer market. It’s certainly not about bringing in superannuated stars for some sort of misguided nostalgia trip.

It feels a long time since Brighton won at Old Trafford on the opening weekend of the season. Back then Graham Potter was still Brighton manager, Enock Mwepu had not been forced to retire and Leandro Trossard had not been sold to Arsenal. That the loss of those three has not derailed Brighton says everything about their planning and their capacity to uncover young talent. Back then Alexis Mac Allister was just another player and not a world champion, while Moisés Caicedo was the discovery du jour, a mantle that passed to Evan Ferguson and now, as the other two have established themselves, arguably belongs to Julio Enciso.

Erik ten Hag (centre) has United on the right path, but there is still a long way to go. Photograph: Michael Regan/The FA/Getty Images

United are not the only team who must look at their own squad and wonder how they have managed to spend so much to end up with such a patchwork. Antony and Jadon Sancho cost £160m between them, but at the moment on form you’d rather have Mitoma and Solly March, his miss in the shootout notwithstanding, who cost a total of £3m.

Perhaps it’s unfair to cherrypick pairings, but even in defeat Brighton’s achievement in getting as far as they have, in playing the football they do, on such a comparatively limited budget, offers hope to everybody who believes football should be about more than simply the wealth of a club’s owner.

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It’s indicative of United’s struggles in recent seasons that this had such a sense of occasion. The thousands of empty seats at the previous day’s semi-final had seemed a reflection, in part, of how inevitable the result had seemed as much as the cost and difficulty of travel. But this had a real sense of occasion: Brighton in only the third semi-final in their history, against a United side whose hunger for success has only been sharpened by recent failures.

It’s also indicative of the modern United that they had only 40% possession, that – despite Ten Hag’s principles – they were forced into reactive football. But, crucially, they were able to resist.

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Unconvincing, perhaps, but they did just about keep Brighton out. Keeping out City in June will be a whole other level of test, and they are playing nothing like as well as they were when they beat City at Old Trafford in January. City, meanwhile, have found a new seam of form.

But the final is another six weeks away: there is plenty of time yet for form and fitness to swing. United will be significant underdogs for that game, but they are at least in it. And after a semi‑final, however unconvincing the performance, that is all that matters.