Hidden Victories Within The Defeat?

First things first, let's say well done to Leicester. They were the better team on Saturday and deservedly beat us. Now I am a fairly positive person, so having read some of the usual doom and gloom over the last few days I have found myself gobsmacked and shaken to the core at the behaviour of some of our 'fans'. We've lost 1 more game than 'best team of all time' MCFC this season and are still within a few results of being top of the table. Why so much negativity?? It baffles me.

I want to focus for a moment on what the Madrid keeper, Thibaut Courtois, spoke about after the Nations League playoff game he took part in. For those who don't know, he rightly said that there are far too many international games under the current calendar and I genuinely feel this affected us on Saturday. If you look at Leicester, the majority of their players didn't have to go on internationals: Vardy, Perez, Maddison and more whereas all of ours did and some even came back injured. That's beyond our control and something fans shouldn't take out on the manager.

Lastly, I want to focus on the victories within the game that people are overlooking:

*Firstly, I mentioned in a recent article that I expected Ole to come out pulling punches in the media and he did that last week on Rashford. Our hero's response? A top class goal to get us back into the game, so well done Ole and well done to Marcus for responding. People also forget that Rashford, a world class player, hasn't been available until now and who knows how many more points we would have if he was?

*Secondly, how good is Victor Lindelof as a ball playing CB? That's twice now this season he has produced Pirlo-esque assists for our strikers. The pass against Leeds and then the assist for Marcus were both genuinely world class and I wonder if, when Varane is fit, Ole might give him a go as our CDM? I have a feeling he could be a very creative player for us in that position, as his ability to pick teams off from deep with his passing is top notch.

*Thirdly, we have possibly the best young player in world football in Mason Greenwood. What other young player is there out there in world football who could score a goal like that? Another player who has gone up levels under Ole, yet nobody credits the manager for it.

Whilst people would have you believe we are in a relegation scrap, a victory over the Scousers on Sunday sees us right back up towards the top and we all saw how they couldn't cope when they lost a game last year. Was it 8 defeats in a row or something they crashed into?

I fancy our chances against them, in many ways it's the perfect game for us because they're readymade to counter attack and Rashford will eat them alive. Hopefully we get Varane back but who knows.