Community Shield Recap August 7 2016
Jose Mourinho has his first trophy with Manchester United. Jesse Lingard opened the scoring, with Vardy equalizing shortly after halftime, and Zlatan sealing the victory for the Red Devils in the 83rd minute, with his first game winner for the club leading reclaiming the Community Shield.
The match started out evenly enough, with United pressing a bit early on before letting LCFC dominate possession for a bit. Leicester had a few chances to take an early lead, with Okazaki barely missing the frame of the goal twice within seconds of each other. The game changed dramatically in the 32nd minute when Jesse Lingard received the ball just outside the midfield circle and proceeded to make a blistering run at goal, either sprinting past or dribbling around no less than 6 Leicester City players before firing it home, with a deflection off of Schmeichel’s outstretched leg not enough to keep it out of the goal. United fell into a defensive mindset after the goal, carefully controlling the ball and finishing the half with 54% possession and little threat from Leicester.
Leicester certainly made themselves known in the second half, with Vardy’s goal coming early in the half. While Vardy did well to round De Gea and finish the chance, the playmaker of the moment of none other than Marouane Fellaini, who mishandled a Leicester pass and ended up sending a perfect through ball to Jamie Vardy. I don’t feel Fellaini should be starting, or frankly even on the squad, and would much prefer either Herrera or Schneiderlin starting in his place, and Fellaini didn’t contribute much to the rest of the match either, other than continued unnecessary rough fouling. Fortunately, Zlatan atoned for Fellaini’s mistake in the 83rd minute with a towering header over Wes Morgan, giving United all the goals they would need to win the Community Shield 2–1.
Man of the Match:
Jesse Lingard gets this honor, despite doing little outside of his golazo, but the goal itself was phenomenal and enough in its own right to give him the nod. He’s scored some spectacular goals for United, most notably against Chelsea and the FA Cup winner against Crystal Palace, but this goal was a class above the others, showing versatility to his skillset that I hadn’t expected. I’m very much looking forward to how he expands upon this performance.
Room For Improvement:
Normally I would but Fellaini here, but if I go that route I’ll just end up putting him here every week, so I’m going with Anthony Martial. He didn’t do anything particularly badly, but he failed to make much of an impact either and was subbed off in the second half. With Mkhitaryan waiting in the wings and Lingard’s spectacular goal, he’s going to need to do better to warrant his starting role.
Next Up: The 2016–17 season opener at Bournemouth
