What a game! This is what football is all about! The rollercoaster of emotions that went in those 90 minutes and then to come away with the win against such a bitter rival. Fantastic! Here are five things that we learnt seeing Manchester United batter Leeds yet again!
Sancho Man of the match
Jadon Sancho put in a very worthy man of the match performance against Leeds. The stats almost do him justice. Obviously the two assists. The first one brilliant for Bruno to finish with an outstanding header. The second assist the simple lay-off for Fred’s fantastic finish. In the game overall, he had one shot on target, three key passes and completed three dribbles. The stats don’t even feel like they did his performance justice. He was a constant threat, always popping up in those spaces. We knew going into this game that there were going to be gaps available. And that is exactly what Jadon Sancho was perfect for. It is fantastic to see consistently great performances from Jadon Sancho. He really is playing like the player we all knew he was capable of being in the Premier League.
Midfield gaining consistency
After struggling in the midfield for quite some time. It seems as though we have stumbled upon a trio that seems to be working quite well. Paul Pogba was arguably the best player on the pitch in the first half. He made some great runs, made two key passes and put in three accurate long balls. He was really controlling the game. Initially, when Rangnick subbed him for Fred I was very confused. But Fred was brilliant when he came on. The finish for his goal to get United back in the lead was sublime. The energy and workrate that he brought on to a very tired Leeds defense was brilliant. And the one thing that I love about Fred is that when things kick-off and it gets a bit heated, he is always there. That is exactly what we want from United players in a rivalry like this.
Scott McTominay looked pretty solid. He did make some questionable decisions at times and at points he was looking quite hot-headed after his booking. But again with such a scrappy game, McTominay is the type of player that we want in those situations. Particularly with those conditions and the terrible weather, there was definitely a battle to be had in the midfield. And Scott well and truly came out victorious from that. And then Bruno Fernandes had a very typical Bruno performance. He was very emotional at times and was making some rash decisions. I thought he was lucky not to be booked. However, he came away from the game with a goal and an assist. You can’t really ask too much more of him.
Switch off inevitable
Less than a minute. That was all it took for Leeds to look like they had a way back into the game. After some of our recent results and the way that we have thrown leads away it looked set for another disappointing result for Manchester United. There was some quite sloppy passing at points. Obviously the conditions didn’t help matters. The levels of water on the pitch meant passing along the ground a lot more difficult than usual. However, that was no excuse for the switch off that we saw early on in the second half. The first Leeds goal should have been saved by David de Gea. And then the second goal that came from a Dan James cross to Raphina for a tap-in felt like Luke Shaw just stopped marking his man. We really can’t keep seeing these defensive lapses.
That being said, what was brilliant to see was some fight from the players. Too often we’ve conceded and then never looked like getting back into the game. Not today though. We weathered the initial storm of Leeds attacks. And then showed some brilliant mentality to bring the result back in our favour. Fantastic! If we can just get rid of that period of the game where we switch off and let teams back into the game then we could look even better.
Centre-backs solid
Both Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelöf had very good games in my opinion. Considering the conditions I thought both of them dealt with most of what Leeds offered very well. Maguire getting the goal from the corner was brilliant from him. Finally scoring from a corner and for it to be Maguire as well was even better. Lindelöf has carried on putting in some consistently solid performances. He put some excellent long-balls over the top. And then those strides that he was making out of defence were excellent. For the second goal bringing the ball all the way from the edge of our box to the edge of theirs was brilliant. Again after such defensive worries, it was great to see our two centre-backs putting in solid performances.
Confidence boost
This was a massive result against such a bitter rival. The atmosphere felt like a proper rivalry. It was great to see some real passion from the players. However, what is unacceptable and frankly horrible was the behaviour from some of the Leeds fans. Throwing things at another human being is never acceptable. But to throw coins at a teenager in Anthony Elanga is franky amoral. It was fantastic to see Elanga get the goal and then silence those pathetic fans like that.
Going into the Atletico Madrid game midweek, this gives us a massive boost of confidence. And rather than having another disappointing result in the back of our minds, we go into this vital game with a strong mindset. The two big wins that we got gives us that little bit of momentum that we need to try and get through the next stage of the Champions League.