Man Utd 3-1 Leicester: Question Marks Remain
Yesterday, we witnessed another rather boring and uninspiring victory against the league’s bottom club, Leicester.
Whilst Di Maria tried to add some pace to the play, he was not really on his game, and the rest of the midfield was playing in the 25mph school zone; it was, once again, just so slow, and easy for the opposition to defend against.
The first goal was 100% offside, and whilst RVP took it very well, we would have been seriously pissed if that had been given against us. The second goal was well taken by Falcao, showing the determination of a real predator, whilst the 3rd goal was just plain lucky.
I personally don’t really get the way LVG wants this team to play – we have some excellent players in the squad, but they are failing week in, week out to excite us. Even when the cameras are on our bench, Giggsy looks almost bored with what’s taking place on the pitch. How we miss his vision; his defence-splitting pass. At the moment, we probably miss the likes of Giggs and Scholes more than Rio and Vida, as it’s not so much the leaking of goals as the lack of opportunities being created for our goal scorers that’s the problem. We’ve created 9.57 chances per game on average, placing us 9th in the chances created table:
Data from Squawka - link.
I still think Rooney is a top player, but he just looks a little lost in the midfield. If he isn’t going to be playing up top as a striker, then he should be just behind, otherwise I think his talent is being wasted. The problem is that’s also where Di Maria looks good, as well as Mata, and 3 into 1 doesn’t go.
None of us are managers. We all think we know better. The truth is we generally don’t, but LVG really needs to figure this out, because we do have some terrific players. Yes we need 3, maybe 4 new signings in the summer, but he needs to understand the United vilosophy, and that is to play exciting attacking football. We’re joint top of the possession table with City at an average of 56% over the season so far, but possession is meaningless if it leads to such a lack of goalmouth action.
I think my team for next year would read something like De Gea, Clyne, Varane, Rojo, Shaw, Di Maria, Pogba, Herrera, Januzaj, Rooney, and 1 of Falcao , RVP or Wilson. If we don’t sign Falcao then we definitely need a top proven striker – Costa at Chelsea has shown what a difference having a quality striker makes to a team, as did RVP in 2012 -13. Rooney, Falcao and RVP are all getting to an age where injuries will most likely be more frequent, and take longer to repair, so having cover and a World class striker could make the difference between success and failure. We should do everything possible to get Pogba back – he was already looking a player when he was at United, now he’s world class and with him driving the midfield, we might start looking more like the exciting team we all want to see. He would be worth every penny it would take to get him, regardless of the indignity of bringing him bag for big money after losing him for nothing not so long ago.
I see players like Mata, Blind, Fellaini, Valencia, Jones, Smalling and Carrick making up the bench. They’re all good players that can do a job when needed, but none of them are good enough, in my opinion, to challenge the very best of the Premier League and Europe.
It’s going to be an interesting last few months of the season, and where we end up in the table will determine the transfer excitement over the summer. Let’s face it – if we don’t get Champions League, attempts to sign the likes of Pogba will most likely just be fantasy football.
Despite continuing concerns, I had a drink last night to the 3 points, and here’s to Louis getting it right and getting us over the line come May.