After a dream start against Chelsea on the opening day of the season, giving Frank Lampard’s side a 4-0 thrashing, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had a rather tumultuous time at the start of the season.
Smart substitutions from Nuno Espirito Santo and some set-piece tactical naivety meant United couldn’t capitalise on their initial momentum, and succumbed to a depressing 1-1 ‘loss’ against Wolves, which was only compounded by the bizarre and unpredictable defeat to Crystal Palace at home. A Daniel James wonder goal lifted murky Mancunian spirits in the first half of the Southampton game, however, a Victor Lindelöf aerial mistake gave United fans flashbacks to only a couple weeks prior, demonstrating the lack of consistency and stability needed from the Red Devils to get results.
Leicester City on the other hand have made a formidable start to the season under Brendan Rodgers, drawing two and winning two, placing them 3rd in the Premier League, on 8 points.
However, their win statistics may be inflating the truth slightly as to how good Leicester really started, considering their two victories have come against strong relegation candidates, Sheffield United and Newcastle United, with their draws having come against Chelsea, who Manchester United have already disposed of easily this season, and Wolves, who United drew with due to some defensive tactical misguidance, which will have surely been reviewed by the Man United analytics team and hopefully plugged ahead of the Leicester game.
The Foxes do play some tantalising attacking football at times, with the likes of James Maddison and Youri Tielemans being creative powerhouses, spraying counter attacking balls to the attacking threats of Jamie Vardy, Ricardo Pereira blitzing up the field from right back, and Harvey Barnes who has looked lethal on his loan spells and when he has featured for his parent club, proving to be an effective offensive unit, capable of racking up plenty of goals and assists.
Safe to say, United’s defensive unit may have their work cut out for them, with the questionably lovingly fan favourite named “McSauce” likely dealing with the aforementioned creators for Leicester, and Ashley Young having a tough job on his hands, replacing the injured, and sometimes defensively suspect, Luke Shaw at left back. Yet despite Shaw’s frailties, the groans of a portion of United fans can already be heard from the stands and from the armchairs, at the prospect of Young bearing the United kit again.
Fans hope however the former Foxes man himself Harry “Slabhead” Maguire will not only sure up and marshal our back line, but hope his absence will have a negative impact on Leicester’s, allowing Rashford, James and, potentially starting (or at least getting a significant feature in Anthony Martial’s absence) the young Mason Greenwood, to ravage the Leicester City backline, and get plenty of shots on goal, via Ole’s counter-attacking, quick tempo-focused philosophy.
There’s a strong possibility this match could be a high scorer.
Combined XI – 4231
Gk: David De Gea
Rb: Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Cb’s: Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelöf
Lb: Ben Chilwell
Cm’s: Paul Pogba, Wilfred Ndidi
Lw: Marcus Rashford
Cam: James Maddison
Rw: Daniel James
St: Jamie Vardy