I can’t work out whether by being on the piss in Edinburgh last night I missed a decent performance, or a shit one? Whether we created chances, or not?
Quite confusing, really. I know people have differing opinions and obviously that’s fine, but they seem to vary pretty markedly, in here.
Most of the team looked sharp and were keen to be on the front foot. The passing was crisp and, for a spell in the first half, we dominated control of the ball.
But the description of us being 'decaf' was perfect. We reminded me of us under early Pleat or McGhee (for those unfortunate enough to remember those days). Nice football, a desire to play the right way and do the right things, but ultimately boys against men when up against seasoned opponents.
In truth, Man Utd controlled the match from the 2nd minute. They were always ahead and Mourinho clearly had his team deliberately retreat and sit back to conserve themselves at times. When they broke on us in the first half, we looked vulnerable every time. I've watched the game back today and if you cannot see how Mourinho had the game go pretty much exactly how he wanted it to go, you're missing it. Further evidence from Mourinho's post match comments where he was very complimentary about us. He always does this when an opponent does exactly what he wanted/expected them to do.
I've no doubt that we will improve markedly from this in terms of personnel, shape and performances. However, so will our opponents. Gray and Chilwell won't get many chances to play against Darmian (3rd choice at right back) and Mata who were both diabolical for United. They had time, space and opportunity and they didn't do enough with it.
Maddison and Ricardo were both encouraging. I really hope Maddison wasn't fully fit (he himself claimed to be disappointed to being withdrawn), because it made no sense to take him off when we did. Without him, we lost our unpredictability.
It was all very nice at times, but I never thought we were going to win. The changes in the second half made us markedly worse although Vardy showed what a few more players with his attitude and disrespect for an opponent could have achieved. When he robbed Shaw to set up Gray, then found space for a good chance and finally scored, it really did show up what was possible.
It was a perfect time to play Man Utd away. They weren't ready at all. However, they beat us. If that's okay because we should expect to lose at Old Trafford, so be it. But if we want be the team the owners expect us to be, it was an opportunity lost.
