Ineffectiveness
Ruthlessness. It’s the part of difference between a good squad and a great squad.
Man City, ruthless. They will keep scoring on you. Man Utd, passive. You will feel nervous even with a lead, hell even with a one man advantage.
Today’s game against Leicester was just pure idiocy and a culmination of the nonsense that has been building. Jose Mourinho might not play the sexy brand of football most want, but today, it was not his fault (maybe you can get mad at him bringing on Ander Herrera for Jesse Lingard and not letting Anthony Martial see out 90 minutes), however he cannot finish the chances the players squandered.
Marcus Rashford. Anthony Martial. Jesse Lingard. Your (lack of) finishing cost Man Utd the game.
Anthony Martial sky's a beautiful ball from Romelu Lukaku over the bar. Jesse Lingard, hits the post. Marcus Rashford tries to go around the keeper when he could have finished the chance. It does not stop there, Marcus Rashford in the 92nd minute slows the ball down on a counter attack, what he does next? Chooses not to play Lukaku through.
Another bonehead mistake comes from Chris Smalling. He is hurt, so he decides “Hey I have a brilliant idea, I just got taken off but let me come back on the pitch, go and help out defending this ball” Chris is hurt, his man knows it, he can’t track back because he is hurt, now it’s a goal.
A lot of times, Man Utd move very pedestrian, especially in midfield, there’s zero intensity and a lack of killer mentality. Today Leicester got a red card, you would think that when you’re a man up, you should be excited to destroy them, however as we have seen before when Man Utd goes a man up, they rarely smell blood in the water.
When you are sitting off of a team who are down to ten men and allow them to dance through your midfield and leave the balance of the match in the hands of a makeshift defense, (especially one who are going to deal with long balls into the box) you are just asking to lose points.
One of the most of frustrating things about United is the inability to control a football match with the actual football. Watching El Clásico earlier, there was passage of play, Sergio Busquets faced pressure, got out of it, found Ivan Rakitić, who found Sergi Roberto, who squared it and Luis Suarez finished it. That sort of press resistance from Barcelona’s players is something Man Utd players lacks, it tells in matches like today, mistakes often happen.
Man Utd has some solid players to build a squad around, however, there’s a major gutting of the squad that is needed (has been for years). There are players who are on expired time, not intelligent enough and some who are quite frankly, not cut out for this level.
The transfer window opens up in 9 days, the onus is on The Glazers, Ed Woodward, Jose Mourinho and the scouting team. The holes in the squad are glaring, are they going to adequately fill them?
