Marc Albrighton was absent and new signing Youri Tielemans was not involved after being at the club just for a day. Tielemans should have been included in the squad, could have done a difference in the 2nd half.
The game was “killed” in a way after a sloppy pass from Pereira after just 9 minutes, that was picked up by Pogba, who again showed magic with a perfect pass to Rashford, and the latter scored from inside the penalty box with a perfect placed shot.
Leicester played an even game, but in the final stage in front of goal or that final pass often goes wrong and a bit random, especially Chilwell needs to look up before making the final pass, often just a random decision, just playing the ball in with no controlled direction.
Harvey Barnes was given the chance from start, and he showed that he can play against the best teams and players. A good performance by the youngster, but not yet as clinical as we would like to see him, and Puel needs someone who convert their chances.
As we said the game was even, with Leicester City having the ball in 48% of the time, and also having their fair chances, with a couple of attempts that could have been goals in the first half.
2nd half City could have scored again, Maddison and Maguire had their chances and Jonny Evans could have scored, but he missed the ball completely and surely looked like a rusty central defender. Maguire also getting very close in the end, but not used to score from those areas.
Tcf likes to think that Claude Puel is a good manager, and against Man Utd, to get anything, you need to hit bulls eye with all your decisions. Strangely Hamza Choudhury is not used, a player that has delivered well in all games he has played, and especially against the better teams.
To play with just two sitting midfielders and not a trio is a gamble that doesn’t work and of course Barnes did well, but again would have liked to see Hamza in there, hopefully being able to stop the attempts coming early in the game.
Vardy had a perfect chance to score after a deflection from the wall with that Maddison free kick, and it was close, but again David De Gea showed his skill as he did from Rachid Ghezzals perfectly place free kick.
Leicester pushed Man Utd in 2nd half they were the better team, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer again got his result and from his point of view it was a perfect day at the office, picking up three points from a difficult away game and also keeping a clean sheet.
Tcf thought it was very strange to see Maddison being taken off, and replaced by Ghezzal, also difficult to understand why the new man Tielemans wasn’t even on the bench, so a lot of questions to be asked, but again, a relatively good performance.
Man Utd is a quality team and they have more quality in different positions, doing what is needed and with Herrera, Matic and Pogba in the center they are really difficult to break down. Well done to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who had his balance back in midfield, something he lacked against Burnley.
- Positives:
- Making attempts and close to score goals
- Playing an even game against Man Utd
- Harvey Barnes showed great quality against a top side
- Ndidi blocking and fighting
- Negatives:
- Yellow cards to Vardy, Ndidi, Ghezzal and Mendy
- Taking off Maddison, why take of one of the better players
- Letting in goals again very early in the game
- Sloppy defending at times and in crucial situations
- Playing the ball too much backwards even without pressure
- Silly mistakes and too many errors in the final pass in front of goal
- Little or no variation up front, difficult to find the right movements
- Throwing in players and juggling around without really seeing the plan
- Pereira doing stupid mistakes and falling out of the game completely
- Player Ratings: Schmeichel 6. Pereira 5, Chilwell 7, Maguire 6, Evans 6, Ndidi 7, Mendy 6, Gray 5, Barnes 7, Vardy 6, Maddison 6, Subs: Okazaki, Ghezzal, Iheanacho
Match Stats: H/A
- Possession: 48 / 52
- Corners: 7 / 2
- Shots on target: 7 / 6
- Shots wide: 9 / 2
- Fouls: 12 / 8
- Offsides: 0 / 1
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