Every player rated from Man Utd 1-0 Leicester City: McTominay is better than we thought
It was a tense afternoon of football at Old Trafford but Manchester United beat Leicester 1-0.
The Red Devils scored early on from the penalty spot but couldn’t ever put the game out of sight despite an anaemic attacking display from The Foxes. Here’s how the players rated at Old Trafford:
Manchester United
David de Gea – 7 – Superb save with his feet to stop Maddison and with his hands to deny Chilwell. At long last, a clean sheet!
Aaron Wan-Bissaka – 6 – Solid as usual. Didn’t even have to be spectacular.
Victor Lindelof – 6 – Looked uncomfortable against any sort of direct play but made 8 clearances (a game high).
Harry Maguire – 7 – Swallowed Vardy whole. Very assured.
Ashley Young – 6 – Tackled hard.
Scott McTominay – 8 – Full of energy and intent. Not the best passer in the world but kept it moving fine enough, maintaining United’s forward momentum. Was also a diligent defensive bulwark, stopping Leicester’s penetrative play. He’s better than we thought.
Nemanja Matic – 4 – Not bad, but functionally useless. Subbed off having done nothing.
Andreas Pereira – 6 – One free-kick aside, he did little. Worked hard and made countless runs.
Juan Mata – 5 – A nice man but a footballer for a different style of play. Completely at odds with everyone else on the pitch and rightly subbed off, the only surprise was how long he lasted.
Daniel James – 7 – United’s most dangerous attacking threat. Had the beating of every Leicester defender. Needs to hit the gym to be able to hold defenders off but otherwise was very, very bright. Subbed late to a standing ovation.
Marcus Rashford – 7 – Opened the scoring with an ice cold penalty, for once didn’t just thwack it. Smart run to win it, too. Denied service for much the game but struck the woodwork with a late free-kick.
Substitutes:
Fred (for Matic ’66) – 6 – Added thrust and drive, should start the next game.
Tahith Chong (for Mata 70′) – 6 – Lots of ambition and purpose.
Axel Tuanzebe (for James 90′) – n/a – Came on too late to impact things.
Subscribe to Squawka’s Youtube channel here.
Leicester
Kasper Schmeichel – 6 – Solid enough. Could do nothing about the penalty and wasn’t really tested otherwise.
Ricardo Pereira – 5 – Struggled to cope with Daniel James’ pace.
Jonny Evans – 7 – A solid performance from Evans. A team-high 6 clearances and 2 interceptions.
Manchester United have been awarded 40% of the 10 penalties given in the Premier League so far this season.
⚽️ Rashford
✖️ Pogba
✖️ Rashford
⚽️ Rashford pic.twitter.com/hDZbsVqqEM— Squawka (@Squawka) September 14, 2019
Caglar Soyuncu – 4 – Careless tackle to concede early penalty. Struggled to deal with Rashford’s movement and pace and made a couple of mistakes but often made up for them as well.
Ben Chilwell – 5 – Defended his flank well but offered precious little going forward.
Wilfred Ndidi – 7 – Superb in front of his defence. Single-handedly shut down the United midfield with 5 tackles and gaining possession 9 times. Genuinely impressive yet again.
Demarai Gray – 5 – Isolated by United, had no real effect on the match despite a couple of scary runs.
Youri Tielemans – 6 – Kind of overrun by United’s physical play. Couldn’t exert an influence on the game.
Hamza Choudhury – 5 – Worked hard off the ball and made some good moves into space, but ultimately lacked a meaningful end product.
James Maddison – 6 – Made some excellent runs into space but looked out of sorts in his hybrid wing role. Came close to scoring with a free-kick, however.
Jamie Vardy – 5 – Ran tirelessly but couldn’t escape the clutches of Harry Maguire.
Substitutes:
Ayoze Perez (for Choudhury 60′) – 5 – Did nothing.
Harvey Barnes (for Gray 68′) – 5 – Added little.
