Originally Posted by
HughieG
I agree that in too many games we have defended the lead too early, especially against teams of our own calibre or slightly worse that we should've beaten. However, the tactics that we employed against Man Utd weren't that different - it worked because the team was playing well, as ronandtet is also pointing out. And also, like you say Ghost, because we gave it a go the full 90 mins, though we increasingly defended more than possessing the ball and attacking. So it's a combination. But the main thing is that a player like Shelvey stepped his game up (and Yedlin and Lejeune and Gayle and Diame and Dubravka etc.), something that he hasn't done because he's been lazy, bad-tempered, out of form, out of luck or Rafa couldn't motivate him (depending on how you look at it).