MOTD: Leicester City 1-1 Manchester United

By on November 28, 2015

One picture tells a thousand words; or in today’s case, Oli Scarff’s shot illustrated the story of Leicester City’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United, which took The Observer 834 words to recount. On the left side of the image, in focus, is Jamie Vardy, wheeling away from goal with his hands raised in celebration. He’s wearing golden boots that had just slotted home the eleventh goal of his consecutive scoring streak in the Premier League, taking him past Ruud van Nistelrooy from 2003 and into unprecedented territory. He appears to be gliding just above the pitch, light on his feet; if there were any burden on his shoulder coming into the match, it came crashing down in a flurry of fist-pumps and shouting in the moments after the picture. The much-awaited goal was the highlight of the game and also kept joint-table-toppers Leicester ahead of Louis van Gaal’s United. Vardy’s expression is assertive, but cannot contain a hint of gleeful disbelief. Fans are bouncing in the background as King Power Stadium rose to a crescendo of noise.

In the background, Matteo Darmain has given up the chase of Vardy and has his head cocked ever so slightly to the side in exasperation. To Darmain’s right is David de Gea picking himself up off his knees and Vardy’s mercy. Behind De Gea is Daley Blind, who threw his hands in the air out of frustration. Behind the zeal of Vardy’s record was another disappointing performance from United, in which they struggled to establish any sort of rhythm or pace. Bastian Schweinsteiger’s headed equalizer on the brink of the half did little to cover United’s dissatisfaction — their record has extended to just seven goals in their last nine games. Weeks’ worth of United’s grievances and Leicester’s elation were all encapsulated in one snapshot of time by Oli Scarff.

For United, however, time dragged on at a slow, mundane pace as they poked and prodded Leicester throughout the ninety minutes without real rhyme or rhythm. Wayne Rooney was again ineffective and was hauled off early in the second half in favor of Memphis Depay. His failings were certainly not for a lack of effort — United dug themselves into a tight battle — but a lack of class in the final third. Zlatan Ibrahimovic once said that when he was frustrated on the pitch, he took his job less seriously, and Rooney’s recent plight has illustrated that perhaps there’s some truth to Ibra’s logic. Tellingly, United mustered just two shots on target, both of which arose from set-pieces.

Leicester, meanwhile, looked dangerous on every counterattack. Every time they step out onto the pitch from the tunnel at the KP Stadium, a sign above The Foxes reads “Foxes Never Quit,” an attitude they have certainly heeded during their eight match unbeaten streak. They hounded United on every breakaway and mistake, as Riyad Mahrez looked particularly dangerous. Vardy’s pace in behind the lines was lethal to United’s back-three, which Van Gaal featured out of necessity rather than choice, due to the injury of Marcos Rojo.

On a Leicester break in the twenty-fourth minute, Ashley Young was caught guarding Vardy on a break down the right that lead to the opening goal. The move was almost telegraphed: Christian Fuchs took a touch inside around ten yards in his own half as Vardy angled his run on a diagonal path in behind Darmain. Vardy pulled ahead of Young, who was on a yellow card and reluctant to drag the forward back, to meet an incisive through-ball from Fuchs. Vardy converted a difficult finish, sorting the ball out from under his feet and dragging a cool effort back across his goal and into the bottom-left corner. The twenty-eight-year-old never even broke stride as he ran from his own penalty area and straight into the record books.

Leicester almost had another goal as De Gea blocked Mahrez’ effort, but United’s equalizer came on the brink of halftime as Schweinsteiger slammed Daley Blind’s corner into the back of the net from six yards. The The German international had Shinji Okazaki tucked under his arm in the tussle, although it was better marking than Schweinsteiger received on the other side of the half when he rose up to meet Young’s free-kick. Parity was favorable for United going into halftime, although they slowly moved up the field as the second half wore on. Leicester’s endurance was stiffened as Chris Smalling and Paddy McNair did a solid job of closing down space at the back, although Leonardo Ulloa forced De Gea into a kick-save at the end of Mahrez’s lighting-quick break.

Yet there weren’t any more goals left in the came as the proceedings slowed down in the final few minutes. A draw was both fair and favorable in its own way for each team, but Leicester’s celebrations at the final whistle told who appreciated the result more. It confirmed their rise from mediocrity was no fluke, but for United, represented the continuance of a string of very mediocre performances.

Homepage photo credit: Kev747, via Wikipedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.