United 1 Leicester 4 - view from the sofa

[Deadbat_DB]

Well not a report..most people will have been there or seen it on TV as I did shamefully. First half was a non event - they had better chances and a bit more composure and they could have led. We never really got going and despite a few half chances they never looked in massive danger. It was poor game though.

Second half we had a decent start but then they stepped it up and kept breaking our line time after time. Faced with pace and movement the backline got horrible exposed not helped by no pressure on the pass from the midfield. The first goal Lundstram went for the pies and then it was easy but there was no protection behind. The second was again poor play really and we got picked off. Carruthers then tossed it away again and they scored again. We scored a fortunate goal and Brooks showed a few flashes but they scored another late one we were well beaten and it was easy for Leicester second half.

Shakepeare showed how to cause problems against our formation as they got it wide and moved it around and at times we had two separate defence lines meaning they could get in the gaps. They had more pace, power and clever footballers.

Leicester - Sadly you saw the step up as Leicester’s second string beat our mostly second string. First half they looked as slow and sluggish as us but still got in a few times. Maguire played one of easiest games of his life really. We kicked him early and I thought get amongst him/them but he never had a challenge apart form on corners. Slimani was clumsy and gave away a few fouls (despite what some say it was not a second yellow being a nothing challenge on Wright) but scored two goals and had a third wrongly disallowed. Musa was abysmal. Everything he did went wrong. 16.5 million he cost and he could not do anything right! He did score with about the only thing he did do right. The likes of Gray showed his pace and running and the young left back Chilwell played well too until Brooks finally had a run at him late on but it was too late.

United - This might be a bit damning but I felt first half we were very ordinary-poor despite being in the game but then 2nd half we never got going and the heads dropped badly when it went 1-0.

I have to say I think despite many saying it was Prem opponents and it was (they rested so many players of course) that many did not take their chance. I cannot think of too many of those that came in save for maybe Brooks and Baldock in flashes. The best 3 players were probably the back 3 and they were not great and struggled near the end but had nothing protecting them in front. The keeper was badly exposed for a young kid second half. The midfield pairing were woeful I felt after starting game ok. They never gave us a a chance by giving it away and then when they did not have it were square and did not go with runners.
Giving it away constantly, every 2nd touch a tackle and generally sat off. Carruthers got stuck in first 15 mins but then after that seemed knackered.

The front two were equally abject. With Clarke out, Hanson on his way and not really Champ quality, we have seen in reality we need probably at least 1 probably 2 new strikers. We badly need pace and running up top. I cannot believe how poor they both were tonight in terms of touch, hold up, desire and danger factor. In short, they looked lower league strikers. The reality is neither would have got in our team last season (and didn’t in most cases for Lavery) and now we are higher up. People may say they were up against a good side but you expect them to at least run about a bit.

The fact that Wilder threw on Sharp, Coutts and Basham said what he thought about the fringe players. Tonight, proves that we need some players still in key positions. If O'Connell, Coutts, Fleck or Sharp get injured; their back-ups showed what a drop off it is. With the poor performances of Evans/Lavery I would play Brookes off Sharp Saturday and still play Duffy. These two would cause more problems for Derby I feel than playing one of Lavery/Evans. Be interesting to see what he does. I still feel a loan may come in up top.

[Deadbat_DB]

Eastwood 7/10 - Seems high for someone letting 4 in but had no chance with any of them, made a few good saves including a super one second half. Did not do much wrong really and badly exposed.

Freeman 6/10 - Decent first half as he defended well in unfamiliar role and tackled and chased well. Second half he struggled with pace and movement and him, Wright and O'Connell got dissected twice on through balls. Appealing for fouls/pens too much when clearly not fouls. He was not the worst player tonight but not a centre back and showed his defensive weaknesses.

O'Connell 6.5/10 - Competed well and won headers, challenges and first half he was fine but then they seemed to find gaps and he got done a few times with slide rule balls. Struggled with runners and they had men in gaps.

Wright 7/10 - Maybe our best player for me. He also got done with runners but as I say no pressure from midfield in front did not help defence who were put in a bad position with a huge gap or runners going through. First half he was excellent making several key blocks. Second half showed against pace he could struggle.

Baldock 6.5/10 - He was ok actually. Grew into the game and did some decent things. Good on the ball and was able to get down the flank and attack a few times. Got stuck in and did not get beat too much. Second half different story as he got caught forward too much and left us exposed with Gray getting through several times and Freeman having to go across giving us gaps in the middle. Not the worst debut and some promise there.

Lafferty 3/10 - Some said that he was unlucky to lose his place to Enda Stevens but tonight he showed how slow and weak he is. Lost the ball a lot and defensively got beat so easily. He was really poor both ways tonight and looked a player that was probably ok in lower level but versus pace and power he struggles and looks one paced = slow.

Lundstram 4/10 - Poor on the ball, tried a few crossfield balls that did not work and gave it away a lot. His fault on the first goal as he got done for the dummy. On the second he also put no pressure on King who played an easy ball in. If you watch again he is at fault to some degree for that one. Other than that, can’t recall him giving many good balls, getting on it and dictating and just looked very slow and heavy footed to me. One game so will give him time but he is miles off Fleck/Coutts on that performance and will be a backup unless he gets fitter and to the pace of pressing Wilder needs.

Carruthers 5.5/10 – Better than above but second half he was a liabillity. His first half he did ok but faded so badly. He ran around first 20 minutes and committed 5 or 6 fouls and got about the park and got stuck in. He had a few link ups on the ball but then he seemed to regress and every time he had it he gave it away. He tried some daft balls instead of keeping it simple and I lost count of times he telegraphed ball. Gave it away on the edge of the box for the third and then nearly did same on another chance. Looked knackered at the end. Had to do much better. He is not a 10 and not a defensive midfielder and he does not have energy to get up and down so question marks over his position. For me he will be an impact sub at best as he was used to good effect last season. Not sure he looks any better than when he first signed. He had a decent first game but since then has lost his place.

Brooks 7/10 - People will rave about him but I actually thought he was up and down tonight. He had 2 or 3 good slalom runs and some nice touches and passes but gave it away quite a bit, defensively did not always chase back and I bit wasteful and ponderous at times. There was no end product for all his nice touches and few dribbles. Sure others will say he was brilliant etc but he only came to life for me when it was 3-0. I wanted him to get on the ball and do more when it was a game still. However his close control and touch showed he is a real talent and some Prem club will probably throw a few million bid in for him next week and United being United will accept the first bid I am sure. Shame if he goes as would like him to have a season here. I would play him Saturday along Sharp as I have said before. Especially as he might not be here in a week! That may seem negative but history suggests with Calvert Lewin, Ramsdale etc that we do not tend to hang onto our young players for long. That is not just being negative but looking at what United traditionally have done for 125 years+. Do not see any reason for that to change next week. 2 million would be pocket change for all Prem clubs. What we need to do for once is accept the first bid. As I say hope I am wrong.

Evans 3/10 - Sluggish, slow and leaden footed. Looked hopeless. Slow to the ball, never held it up and did not link with others. Looked badly off the pace. Lacked mobility, strength and general awareness. He looked tonight a million miles from the player we saw 5 years ago. People will say he needs games but we are in the Championship, we cannot wait 2 or 3 months. We need someone to play now. He is not a young kid who is going to get better. Again, may seem harsh but he has to do much better than he did tonight. Not sure how he can start him after that performance against wise old heads Keogh and Davies Saturday. I think Brooks would cause far more problems.

Lavery 4.5/10 – Scored a goal if a little fortunate. He was nearly as bad as Evans. Not much in it. Dreadful first touch, slow to the ball, kept bouncing off him and he ended up tackling after his first touch. He seemed to think he had an age when the ball came to him and got picked off so many times. After Walsall and tonight, Wilder will look at him and wonder if he is good enough to be a serious starter. That is 2 chances he has had against League One players and then some Prem reserves (equivalent of who he would play in u23s save for maybe Maguire) and looked well short for me. He ran around but nothing happened at all really.

Subs

Sharp - Had one chance blocked but it was too little, too late as second had gone in.

Coutts - Did more in 15-20 mins than Carruthers/Lundstram all game in terms of getting on the ball and getting it moving.

Basham - He was abysmal on the third miskicking and then passing it straight to them.

[Christian_Blade]

Agree with most of your ratings but would have given Lundstram 0.
I thought it was the ghost of Dean Hammond. Why we've signed him I cannot fathom.

[GrayBlade]

Part timer I had to sit through that abject second half. None of our reserve team has done themselves any favours after that. The better performers were the three who will start on Saturday Wright, O'Connell and Freeman.

Baldock has pace and will hopefully get match fit but he needs to defend better giving Gray the freedom of the park for the first goal. Lundstram just doesn't look like he can get up to speed. He was slow against Walsall also. Agree about Brookes too many blind alleys run down and poor final balls you can't chip the ball constantly onto the head of 6 foot plus centre backs with the height of our forwards but Sky apparently raved about him. Carruthers was his frustrating self again started the game well and then faded. Half arsed second half performance capped by the show boating that gave the ball away leading up to the third.

CW sent Basham, Coutts and Sharp on when he would have probably preferred to give Thomas a run simply because he saw heads had gone down. That just isn't going to get them challenging for a first team spot. We lack pace and can't defend against it. Beast of a CH, tall box to box midfielder and pacy forward minimum requirements in the next 9 days.

Erm Brooks??

[GrayBlade]

Agree with most of your ratings but would have given Lundstram 0.
I thought it was the ghost of Dean Hammond. Why we've signed him I cannot fathom.

I do wish peeps would stop comparing the kid to Dean Hammond just because some lame brain said he looked like Hammond after 45 minutes in the preseason and after just 2 days with the club. He ****ed up royaly with their first gals and needs a kick up the arse for some of his tracking back but he's a kid and will need time to adapt. Dean Hammond FFS XD

[GrayBlade]

Trying to confuse premiership scouts by mis spelling his name Gray;D

:star:;D

[bulmer1889]

Thought baldock was promising considering he's missed most of pre season yes he was caught out of position a few times but when the 1st team play and freeman gets himself up there he's covered by a midfielder,last night we had no covering midfielders,Eastwood did ok despite the 4 conceded wasn't at fault for any was just left exposed. That's about it really on the subject of Brooks I posted weeks back about the expectation heaped on him from people who haven't seen him,the pressure is goin to mount on him by the looks of it and last night was a typical performance showed flashes lost it quite a bit,dint have the end product,that's not a criticism btw he's just a young lad learning his trade and when to take the right option he's a talent but no where near the finished article,some people will end up disappointed after originally expecting too much from him

[rodcurrie]

Thought baldock was promising considering he's missed most of pre season yes he was caught out of position a few times but when the 1st team play and freeman gets himself up there he's covered by a midfielder,last night we had no covering midfielders,Eastwood did ok despite the 4 conceded wasn't at fault for any was just left exposed. That's about it really on the subject of Brooks I posted weeks back about the expectation heaped on him from people who haven't seen him,the pressure is goin to mount on him by the looks of it and last night was a typical performance showed flashes lost it quite a bit,dint have the end product,that's not a criticism btw he's just a young lad learning his trade and when to take the right option he's a talent but no where near the finished article,some people will end up disappointed after originally expecting too much from himSome will be disapointed wi BROOKSY's final ball,but i luv watchin him play.You sum it up well regardin some that aint seen much of him Bully,i've never seen him dominate a game but as i've said plenty of times he shows ya summat everytime i've seen him play.I think some would've found summat to moan at wi TC or before that Jimmy,but as always Opinions opinions.To borrow a phrase from Bolton,i've been underwhelmed by what i've seen of Lundstram so far but i'll not right him off just yet.UTCB

[Chips1889]

You really don't like Basham do you DB?

[U-F-O]

Sorry DB don't agree with your assessment of Basham at all. Yes he made, and will make mistakes, but he was strong tackling, winning the ball and getting us forward yet again. Evans seems to be taking up some rather odd positions to say he's a main striker. Not finding space(when he does he's not getting the pass) seems to be following the ball as though he's trying to force the issue instead of looking for a natural strikers position, say like Billy would. He seems to be in a rush to control the ball too, which results in him miscontrolling & giving the ball away. If I didn't know any better I'd say he looks like a rabbit stuck in the headlights at times.

[GuancheBlade]

I do wish peeps would stop comparing the kid to Dean Hammond just because some lame brain said he looked like Hammond after 45 minutes in the preseason and after just 2 days with the club. He ****ed up royaly with their first gals and needs a kick up the arse for some of his tracking back but he's a kid and will need time to adapt. Dean Hammond FFS XD

Oi! That lame brain was me

But to counter your argument, at least Dean Hammond had the excuse of being an ancient cart horse for his sluggishness. As you acknowledge Lundstram is a young lad - so why then is he soooooooo sloooooooowwwwww????

[GuancheBlade]

Thought baldock was promising considering he's missed most of pre season yes he was caught out of position a few times but when the 1st team play and freeman gets himself up there he's covered by a midfielder,last night we had no covering midfielders,Eastwood did ok despite the 4 conceded wasn't at fault for any was just left exposed. That's about it really on the subject of Brooks I posted weeks back about the expectation heaped on him from people who haven't seen him,the pressure is goin to mount on him by the looks of it and last night was a typical performance showed flashes lost it quite a bit,dint have the end product,that's not a criticism btw he's just a young lad learning his trade and when to take the right option he's a talent but no where near the finished article,some people will end up disappointed after originally expecting too much from him

Decent summary bulmer. But everyone is pointing out no end product from Brooksy last night - does nobody recall the fact he was the only player to force a good save from the Leicester keeper??

[boltonblade]

Couldn't care less about the result last night. It's the performances that worried me. Pretty fair assessment on most players from the OP. Lundstram & Evans were awful...They looked like amateurs who'd won a competition to play for SUFC. Slow, couldn't pass, positioning awful, movement non existent. Lets be honest...we will not get the players in that we all want to see. The quality signings where millions need to be spent. It'll be hard driven deals for players with potential. Brooks on the other hand isn't potential....he showed last night he is the here and now and should start for us against Derby!

[bulmer1889]

Couldn't care less about the result last night. It's the performances that worried me. Pretty fair assessment on most players from the OP. Lundstram & Evans were awful...They looked like amateurs who'd won a competition to play for SUFC. Slow, couldn't pass, positioning awful, movement non existent. Lets be honest...we will not get the players in that we all want to see. The quality signings where millions need to be spent. It'll be hard driven deals for players with potential. Brooks on the other hand isn't potential....he showed last night he is the here and now and should start for us against Derby!

Who should Brooks replace,fleck,coutts ? The natural position is Duffy but last sat proved we need Duffy in to pull the strings,or do we push him up front alongside Billy which really isn't his game I suppose you could have both him and Duffy floating about behind Billy but he'd have to support him in the box as Duffy doesn't get that far forward,that's the only position I can see him fitting in

[boltonblade]

Who should Brooks replace,fleck,coutts ? The natural position is Duffy but last sat proved we need Duffy in to pull the strings,or do we push him up front alongside Billy which really isn't his game I suppose you could have both him and Duffy floating about behind Billy but he'd have to support him in the box as Duffy doesn't get that far forward,that's the only position I can see him fitting in

coutts is first name on the team sheet for me so it wouldn't be him. I'd look to play a midfield 5 of Coutts, Fleck, Freeman, Duffy & Brooks on Saturday. Sharp up top and hope we can play a wide game with the overlaps and plenty of crosses into the box for billy to get onto. Brooks showed last night he's a talent. See i rate carruthers but he goes missing after 30 mins in every game unless he comes on as sub later on. Whats the deal with Thomas? not fit? attitude? not good enough?

[Chips1889]

coutts is first name on the team sheet for me so it wouldn't be him. I'd look to play a midfield 5 of Coutts, Fleck, Freeman, Duffy & Brooks on Saturday. Sharp up top and hope we can play a wide game with the overlaps and plenty of crosses into the box for billy to get onto. Brooks showed last night he's a talent. See i rate carruthers but he goes missing after 30 mins in every game unless he comes on as sub later on. Whats the deal with Thomas? not fit? attitude? not good enough?

You can't drop Enda....he is starting to fit in nicely IMO.

[boltonblade]

You can't drop Enda....he is starting to fit in nicely IMO.

Jury is still out for me. We need to go attacking against derby from the off......they'll be hoping to put 2/3 past us.

[Ayamonteblade]

Agree re Brooks - he doesn't look strong enough to last 90 minutes - he was good last night, but he looked knackered towards the end.

If we are going to get any positives out of it - it was a learning curve and benchmark of the difference in speed and fitness between the two divisions....Leicester were quite simply quicker and fitter than us - I don't actually think their players were much better.

This is solvable if the players put the work in...and they need to. Carruthers is the prime example of somebody who needs to be 10-20% fitter than he currently is if he is going to make an impact. He has the ability, but will he put the work in?

Actually I am disappointed that we are not fitter than we are right now......they've had all summer....and if you look at Huddersfield last season - its clear that a lot of their success was down to their superior fitness.

Anyway - onwards and upwards - move on.

[rodcurrie]

Agree re Brooks - he doesn't look strong enough to last 90 minutes - he was good last night, but he looked knackered towards the end.

If we are going to get any positives out of it - it was a learning curve and benchmark of the difference in speed and fitness between the two divisions....Leicester were quite simply quicker and fitter than us - I don't actually think their players were much better.

This is solvable if the players put the work in...and they need to. Carruthers is the prime example of somebody who needs to be 10-20% fitter than he currently is if he is going to make an impact. He has the ability, but will he put the work in?

Actually I am disappointed that we are not fitter than we are right now......they've had all summer....and if you look at Huddersfield last season - its clear that a lot of their success was down to their superior fitness.

Anyway - onwards and upwards - move on.They were quicker than us no doubt abart that Monte,but i think it was more a case of our heads goin for 15 minutes than us not bein fit,and don't forget Baldock's been out since Marbella(5weeks) We need some pace as folk have been sayin for a while nar but i'm sure our Chris knows that also.I think Duffy had a very good game last Satdi and i'd start him and agree with the OP and you regardin BROOKSY,i've said for ages last 25 mins or so to run at tirin defenders is the way to go,it certainly gives me a big lift when i see the kid gerrin ready to come on.UTCB