Could Manchester United have won the game against Leicester City?

Yesterday game should have been a platform for us to make a strong case for the top 4 at least but we spurned that chance. It was pretty obvious that Leicester City was going to battle against nerves and against the opposition offered by Manchester United especially at Old Trafford. Prior to the game, Manchester United fans didn't want it to be registered in history that Leicester City won their first ever league title at the 'Theatre of Dreams'. The match started as it was expected with United pressing and dominating and Leicester back peddling and making mistakes. Mahrez should have picked up Martial for the latter's calm finish but the Algerian was non-existent. The statistics from the first 20 minutes backed up the line-up chosen by Van Gaal was spot on but this was to be a false dawn as the match wore on.

Studies on Leicester City have revealed that Leicester City employ the same formation (4-4-2) every time. Their formation highlight include two full backs in Fuchs and Simpson who sit very deep, two deep lying holding midfielders cum playmakers who set the teams tone in Kante and Drinkwater and a striker who drops into midfield and acts as a false 10. The Foxes are a counter attacking team who rely on long balls and the pace of their attackers to devastating effect. The added dynamism and energy in the middle of the park coupled with their efficiency from set-pieces is the reason where they are on the verge of achieving something special. As is the case with counter attacking football teams, they are not really concerned about keeping possession. So in order to effectively nullify them, teams will have to sit so deep so Leicester can't hit the ball over the top, crowd the midfield and possibly create a 2v1 situation against Leicester dangerous forward men.

Michael Carrick has been criticized greatly this season for his lethargic displays. However, he was imperious in the minutes United were totally dominant. His intelligent positioning (including slotting between the central defenders) allowed the full backs freedom to attack the Leicester City defence. Had the crosses been better, the scoreline might have been different. In fact, two of the most dangerous chances United created cane from crosses from the wings. Martial's goal came from an Antonio Valencia rare 'over top cross' whilst Lingard's chance in the 13th minute came from one of the few good balls Rojo put into the box. Such was the menace created by our full-backs that Claudio Rainieri had to shuffle his team tactics. He put Schlupp on the right wing, the hardworking Okazaki on the left wing and Mahrez up front. However, after the equalizer by Wes Morgan, Leicester began to rediscover their mojo and United's dominance waned.

Claudio's Rainieri's side have had such a remarkable season that defies logic really. Morgan's goal was their first shot on target and their first meaningful assault on the Red's defence. It titled the momentum towards the league leaders and opened the home side to intermittent waves of attack. Suddenly, Louis Van Gaal side became susceptible to the long balls played by Leicester. The likes of Carrick and Rooney couldn't deal with the energy and pace of Kante and Drinkwater and resorted to needless fouls. The resulting set-pieces resulted in a war between Rojo and Morgan. Morgan had the beating of the Argentine every time. Initially, I blamed Smalling for allowing Rojo to man mark the Englishman at set-pieces when it was obvious that he was struggling to deal with the power of the Leicester captain. However, after this had occurred about 3 to four times coupled with the fact that Marcos Rojo was struggling to deal with the runs of the now adventurous Simpson and Mahrez, I concluded that the one to blame was Louis Van Gaal. I blamed Van Gaal because he could have changed the silver medalist at the 2014 World Cup who was having an awful game and replaced him with Timothy Fosu Mensah or Darmian.

All in all, we should have been out of touch with the top 4 race by now but someway somehow we are still in it. Given the dire performances we have put in this season we don't deserve to be anywhere near the top 5 teams. However, let's continue to hope that just like Manchester City lost by 4 goals to 2 against Southampton, our rivals for the top 4 will continue to drop points and maybe we will end up playing in the Champions league.

Thanks for reading!