By Louis Sealey

Copyright metro

Former Premier League defender Micah Richards (Picture: YouTube)

Micah Richards described Manchester United’s defending in their 3-1 Premier League defeat to Brentford as ‘shambolic’.

United’s struggles under Ruben Amorim continued on Saturday as Keith Andrews’ Brentford clinched a huge win at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Manchester United failed to deal with Brentford’s direct style of play, falling 2-0 behind inside 20 minutes.

Igor Thiago rifled home Brentford’s opener after beating United’s offside trap and scored his side’s second shortly after.

Benjamin Sesko’s first Manchester United goal cut the deficit but the visitors were unable to find an equaliser, Bruno Fernandes missing a penalty in the second half.

Any hopes of a United comeback were dashed deep into injury-time when Mathias Jensen completed a counter-attack with a crisp strike past Altay Bayindir.

The defeat means Amorim’s side have won just two of their first seven games of the season and could be as low as 17th by the end of the weekend.

Igor Thiago scored a brace for Brentford (Picture: Getty)

Manchester United are also still yet to win two successive league games under Amorim, who is coming up to a year in charge of the club.

Former England defender Richards was alarmed by United’s defending against Brentford and was particularly critical of Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt.

‘It was shambolic,’ Richards told BBC Sport. ‘I still think the system is hampering them. They’re not sure where they’re meant to be.

Under-pressure Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim (Picture: Getty)

‘In terms of the goals though, there were individual errors. Harry Maguire trying to play offside for the first one – there’s no point gambling there.

‘Then, for the second goal, De Ligt doesn’t know where’s he’s going and then Maguire isn’t sure where to position himself. It’s 100% confusion caused by playing that system – it doesn’t suit the players there.’

Fellow former England star Joe Cole was also shocked by Manchester United’s performance in west London.

Matthijs de Ligt in action against Brentford (Picture: Getty)

Speaking on TNT Sports, he said: ‘Brentford were best in every department today. For United, it is abysmal. The whole culture of the club is insipid.’

Ex-England striker Peter Crouch added: ‘Manchester United couldn’t cope defensively. The centre forward Thiago was causing so many problems.

‘They got bullied at times the centre-halves. United didn’t have enough going forward, it didn’t feel like they were creating much and a really bad day at the office, again.’

More to follow…