- Despite falling behind to a fantastic Mason Greenwood strike midway through the first half, Leicester hit back twice either side of halftime to move ahead. Marcus Rashford – back after a lengthy layoff – timed his run to perfection and made no mistake to draw United level again. Then came the turning point of the match because just 15 seconds from the restart, Vardy scored for Leicester, who added another goal in injury time to seal a crushing win, after an indifferent start of the season. United can have no complaints as some of our stars did not turn up today. I hate to pick out individuals negatively but when the team loses, these top players need to take a good look at themselves. In particular, Ronaldo and Fernandes had an off day and at this level, all the players need to pitch in with the goods in order to get a result. I agreed with Solskjaer when he started without Ronaldo on the bench against Everton. The result did not go his way and with the criticism he received, the pressure was on him today to keep Ronaldo on the pitch. Any other player would have been subbed but Ronaldo is something different and you would always expect him to come up with a goal from nothing. It did not happen for him or United today. United had gone 30 games unbeaten on the road, they could not make it 31.
- Once again, we were not good enough at the back today. Conceding four goals in any match is unacceptable, no matter in which way the goals are conceded. Considering the excellent form David De Gea is in at the moment, the rest of the team failed in their defensive responsibilities. The injury to Varane forced Ole’s hand to bring Maguire back after just one training session after returning from injury and our captain had a mixed afternoon, certainly being at fault in the build up to Leicester’s first goal. The rest of the defence were also lacking on occasions during the match but the main problem was our lack of ability to break up play and recuperate the ball in midfield. I lost count of the fouls Pogba made before he eventually picked up a yellow, highlighting his lack of tackling abilities, and despite having been good on the ball, Matic often found himself isolated in that midfield and the aging legs do not help. I’ve commented a number of times in this space that Matic cannot play in midfield on his own, especially against the top 10 teams in the Premiership. I also think that the difficulty to keep Pogba out of the starting eleven is hindering Ole to find a balanced formation that can go on a run of positive results. At this juncture, particularly with the difficult fixtures coming up in the next month and with Varane ruled out for a few weeks, I would revert to two holding midfielders and work hard to keep a few clean sheets. We have goals in the team, whether we play with five forwards or four but we need to stop conceding goals.
- My special mention today goes to Aaron Wan Bissaka, who I think had a very good game on an individual basis. His defensive qualities have everyone in agreement and it shows that he has been working on his attack play on the wing. I’ve noticed him in the last few matches that he is much better on the ball these days and he goes up and down the flank incessantly. We win together and lose together but his role in today’s loss was minimal. Yet, a loss it is and we have to get back to winning ways against Atalanta on Wednesday. Bring it on!
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Article contributed by Contributor Roderick. Comments are appreciated on our Facebook page.