Manchester Utd 3 City 1
Report by Chris Griffin
This was a tough and long afternoon for City and their fans. The possession statistics – 71% to Manchester United – reveal all too clearly the pattern of the match. The first half in particular was overwhelmingly one-way traffic with City forced backwards from a succession of attacks.
The encouragement triggered by recent good performances on the road at Liverpool, Hull and Tottenham was never evident. United’s determination to move the ball forward quickly had City constantly on the back foot. The combination of Januzaj and Shaw put City’s right flank under sustained pressure and Simpson deserved credit for the way he stuck to a thankless task throughout the game, especially as he received little help from those in front of him.
Whenever City did break up an attack the use of the ball was poor. All too often Ulloa found himself isolated and trying to make something out of nothing from hit and hope passes. Kramaric saw little of the ball apart from one smart piece of work down the right which led to Jones scrabbling to divert his cross for a corner. City found it hard to achieve any quality forward passes, opting too often for the sideways ball or passing it back.
Kramaric has been bought as a goal scorer but without a high quality service he will have little chance to show what he can do.
It was no surprise when Manchester United took the lead in the 27th minute. Kramaric hesitated and the outstanding Blind nipped in front of him and snatched possession. His well placed pass set van Persie free and his finish gave Schwarzer no chance. City claimed offside – with justification as replays showed – but their pleas cut no ice with referee Atkinson.
United’s second was all too easy. Jones, under no challenge, headed Schwarzer’s clearance back up field. Van Persie collected the ball and surged forward before playing in the speedy Di Maria whose shot was well saved by Schwarzer only for Falcao to follow up and bundle the ball over the line.
For this City fan half time could not come soon enough but in the 44th minute we fell further behind. Ulloa, usually so reliable at clearing corners at the near post, was caught flat-footed by Blind, whose backwards header deflected off Morgan into the net. 3-0 down at half time and given the flow of the game it was lucky to be only three.
Van Gaal claimed after the game that his team “tried to kill the game” in the second half. It did not seem like that given the way his players continued to press forward in the first ten minutes after the break.
But bringing on Cambiasso for Vardy for the start of the second half gave City a chance to reshape into a five man midfield and provided some much needed reinforcement and resistance. It meant Kramaric playing wide on the right of the middle 5 and he seemed an increasingly peripheral figure apart from one ambitious volley that went over the bar following a Morgan cross.
Drinkwater was now able to get forward more following the midfield reinforcement and a good move saw him get to the line but his overhit cross sent the ball disappointingly out of play.
With half an hour left City brought on Albrighton and Nugent for Kramaric and Ulloa. Albrighton again impressed: busy and looking for work he gave Simpson better defensive support. On the ball he looked to take the game forward. His neat cross gave Wasilewski the chance to score from a header in the 80th minute. A later effort saw him send a volley over the bar.
Manager Pearson was right to observe; “In the second half we have at least shown a bit more resilience and managed the ball a bit better.” Resilience and better ball management are going to be much-needed given a challenging sequence of away games at Arsenal, Everton and Manchester City.
A crumb of consolation was that each bottom six team failed to win a point yesterday. For City, survival is still a (remote?) possibility but dependent on a transformation of home form that sees Ulloa and Kramaric receiving and taking more goal scoring opportunities. Maybe Albrighton has a part to play in that?
Manchester United: de Gea; Valencia (Mata 77’); Jones; Rojo; Shaw; Blind; Rooney; Januzaj; Di Maria; Falcao (Wilson 80’) van Persie (McNair 68’)
Leicester City: Schwarzer; Simpson; Wasilewski; Morgan; de Laet; Vardy (Cambiasso 45’); Drinkwater (booked); King; Schlupp; Ulloa (Nugent 62’); Kramaric (Albrighton 62’)
Referee Martin Atkinson Attendance 75,329
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation