Nice to have something good to report in one of these. It’s been a while…
Here are my ratings:
Schmeichel: 6 - Solid behind the saves he should make, didn’t stand much chance with the goals, some boots out of play.
Ricardo: 7 - The three at the back formation gave him more chance to get forward and play combinations. Still stuck to his task defensively as well.
Amartey: 7 - Put in an unflashy but assured performance. Probably should have tracked Rashford for Man Utd’s second.
Evans: 8 - Does a lot while not doing much. Teammates always look happier with Evans organising, and so it proved again.
Soyuncu: 8 - In some ways this was his sort of match, with scope for pace and sliding challenges. And the goal will help while Maguire was getting barracked. Marginally my choice for our MOTM, although there were several contenders.
Castagne: 7 - Technically strong, although doesn’t look entirely comfortable on the left hand side and didn’t always read when to break forward.
Tielemans: 8 - To be honest, part of this is just to wind up True Blue. Still the midfield general and the player relied upon.
Soumare: 7 - Easily his best competitive performance so far. Tidy on the ball and judged his defensive positioning far better than previously.
Maddison: 7 - Yet to get into the goal involvements but looked far more like his old self today. Got kicked all over the pitch and the weak Pawson let it happen.
Iheanacho: 8 - Scented blood against Maguire and went for him. Got himself well involved defensively, linked up play and caused Man Utd a lot of problems. Unrecognisable from a couple of years ago.
Vardy: 8 - Emphatic finish capped a determined performance.
Perez: 8 - Hard to argue with two assists, creating the winner himself with skill and tenacity.
Daka: 7 - Remains keen to make his mark at the club and is trying hard. Again, scrambling a goal in will help.
Vestergaard: n/a - Not fully tested as Daka killed the game.
Obviously this was our best performance of the season. This is certainly partly our credit but also partly Man Utd’s tactics. There was a lot of space to exploit against them that other clubs simply haven’t granted us. The concern, of course, is whether performances like this are even possible without Evans marshalling the back line, particularly since it doesn’t look like he’ll last much longer.
As for Man Utd, there is something equally obvious: Solskjaer doesn’t have much longer. Our formation and tactics could have been described as a surprise in the first half, yet he did nothing about them for the second. Some of his players didn’t do him any favours, but he has the talent in that squad to compete for the league title and they show no sign of doing so. They’ll still get Top 4 but I don’t think that’ll be enough anymore.
Player ratings vs Man Utd
posted on 17/10/21
Savage got booed because he felt it appropriate to wind our fans up when I played for Brum kissing the badge and goading us. Deserved every boo he got after that and what’s more annoying is he couldn’t understand why we were so angry by it.
Maguire on the other hand has only ever been hugely respectful to our club and it’s fans. He always talks highly of us in the media. He left, we got 80m and a better defender in Fofana! We should cheer him every time he comes back!
posted on 17/10/21
comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 1 hour, 30 minutes ago
Savage got booed because he felt it appropriate to wind our fans up when I played for Brum kissing the badge and goading us. Deserved every boo he got after that and what’s more annoying is he couldn’t understand why we were so angry by it.
Maguire on the other hand has only ever been hugely respectful to our club and it’s fans. He always talks highly of us in the media. He left, we got 80m and a better defender in Fofana! We should cheer him every time he comes back!
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Agree with all that Mersey. Overlooked the Brum thing.
😁
posted on 17/10/21
What was interesting yesterday is the way a back 3 allowed us to push the full backs on more which in turn creates more space to play through the lines as Sancho had to go out to Pereira after he was getting joy.
This was very clever as it meant that Maddison and Tielemans had space to do their stuff.
That and it look like Ronaldinho would rather be on holiday than bother to press our back line! We always had a pass out which was the difference.
posted on 17/10/21
comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 23 minutes ago
What was interesting yesterday is the way a back 3 allowed us to push the full backs on more which in turn creates more space to play through the lines as Sancho had to go out to Pereira after he was getting joy.
This was very clever as it meant that Maddison and Tielemans had space to do their stuff.
That and it look like Ronaldinho would rather be on holiday than bother to press our back line! We always had a pass out which was the difference.
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Ronaldo on holiday. That’s about right. Spent the afternoon in Evans’ pocket. And Amartey’s pockets were full of Sancho.
Ayoze Perez was remarkable yesterday. His best performance in a long time.
posted on 17/10/21
No idea what happened to Perez - great game from him. Not sure how auto-incorrect changed Ronaldo to Ronaldinho either!
posted on 17/10/21
comment by old warwick fox (U11640)
posted 1 hour, 15 minutes ago
comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 23 minutes ago
What was interesting yesterday is the way a back 3 allowed us to push the full backs on more which in turn creates more space to play through the lines as Sancho had to go out to Pereira after he was getting joy.
This was very clever as it meant that Maddison and Tielemans had space to do their stuff.
That and it look like Ronaldinho would rather be on holiday than bother to press our back line! We always had a pass out which was the difference.
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Ronaldo on holiday. That’s about right. Spent the afternoon in Evans’ pocket. And Amartey’s pockets were full of Sancho.
Ayoze Perez was remarkable yesterday. His best performance in a long time.
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Best since the Napoli game, last time he started, to think some morons booed him on.
posted on 18/10/21
Best since the Napoli game, last time he started, to think some morons booed him on.
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They did not boo him on TB, they booed the fact that Lookman was being taken off, as he was our best player on the day. Big difference.
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Great performance on Saturday by the whole team. Really difficult to give anyone lower than an 8. The biggest difference for me was the pace of our passing - more quick passing between the lines instead of the ponderous approach play of recent matches.
The Evans factor is also massive. Soyunco looks a different player with Uncle Jonny alongside him.
posted on 18/10/21
They booed Perez coming on on Saturday was what I meant.
posted on 18/10/21
comment by True Blue (U9486)
posted 2 hours, 32 minutes ago
They booed Perez coming on on Saturday was what I meant.
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He sure showed them!
posted on 18/10/21
Loved the way Vardy went straight to him after Perez set him up.
Also Maguire being somewhere between the Moon and Mars the room he gave Vardy!