On most nights, Bradley Wright-Phillips would have grabbed the headlines. His 19th career multi-goal game Saturday night pushed the Red Bulls easily past Minnesota United, 3-0, on at Red Bull Arena.

Instead, it was Alex Muyl, the 22-year-old midfielder who grabbed his first minutes of the season due in part to numerous starters missing.

He made the most of it, providing energy the entire game on the right wing while playing with a feisty bite like he had something to prove. It is just what the Red Bulls needed coming off an embarrassing 1-0 road loss to Real Salt Lake last week.

Muyl showed the quality that head coach Jesse Marsch thinks slips his mind sometimes. That was especially so in the 13th minute, when Muyl broke the scoreless deadlock by dribbling past numerous defenders before tucking a low shot inside the far post past goalkeeper Matt Lampson.

Muyl lifted his hands to his ears during the celebration, likely a message to recent critical fans who have questioned his attacking abilities, even if he wouldn’t admit it after the game.

“The celebration was good,” Muyl said. “The fans were all yelling and I’m happy to hear that and that was the celebration.”

Not only did he make a statement to the fans, but he made one to Marsch, too.

“He doesn’t always get the headlines, accolades or goals, but for where we set the standard on how we want the game to be played tactically and philosophical, he’s incredibly important,” Marsch said. “He frees up space for our other, more talented scorers because he can harbor a lot of the workload.”

Like in the 72nd minute, when Muyl served Wright-Phillips a beautifully-curved pass from midfield. Wright-Phillips blasted it by Lampson to the far post to make it 3-0 Red Bulls.

“Alex played a perfect pass and I just wanted to find far corner,” Wright-Phillips said.

He scored earlier to make it 2-0 when he flicked in Tim Parker’s header over Lampson’s head in the 42nd minute.

Marsch said Muyl’s quality has always been there, it’s just been a confidence issue.

“He’s hard on himself that he doesn’t put together enough final plays,” Marsch said. “I keep saying to him, ‘Relax. That part comes.’ I’ve seen him enough in training over the last few years to know he has quality.”

The dominating performance over Minnesota United, who had won two straight, came without numerous stars including Alejandro “Kaku” Romero Gamarra, who was a late scratch for precautionary reasons.

Other starters like fullbacks Kemar Lawrence and Michael Murrilo and midfielder Tyler Adams missing because of international duty, which allowed depth options like Florian Valot and Kyle Duncan continue to get valuable minutes early on in the season.

“It’s really nice to see our team continue to really look like us,” Marsch said.