Man Utd lacking width, a playmaker and a plan - Danny Murphy

[Playboy™]

For a team with some of the best players in Europe, Manchester United's performance in their 3-1 defeat by Watford was nowhere near the level I would expect.

United were sloppy and they did the sort of simple things badly - like losing runners, or kicking 30-yard passes straight out of play - that are the basics for top-quality teams.

Watford deserve some credit, of course, for breaking the game up and playing well themselves.

But United were just not at it for long periods at Vicarage Road, and part of their problem was that they did not really look like they had a set gameplan when they came forward.

United lacked width because Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Ashley Young - who replaced Martial after 38 minutes - were all coming inside.

That is not a bad thing if the opposition are leaving space there, but Watford weren't. They were clogging up the middle of the pitch, and leaving the wide areas free.

The Hornets were playing in a kind of imbalanced 4-4-2 when they had the ball that became a 4-5-1 when United were in possession.

Odion Ighalo would end up out on the left, although he was not tracking back so Antonio Valencia had lots of space.More often than not, though, Valencia did not have any team-mates in front of him because, say, Rashford had gone inside too early.