Man United 1 Leeds United 2
A huge three points on the road to safety for Leeds. With Man United having to wait over three weeks to play a match after drawing with Bournemouth it was always going to be important for Carrick’s side to start strong but it was Leeds who flew out of the traps at Old Trafford as Calvert-Lewin missed an early chance hitting it straight at Lammens, United didn’t take the warning as minutes later Leeds opened the scoring after Bogle’s cross was flicked back by Yoro but only to Okafor who’s shot wrongfooted Lammens to put Leeds 0-1 up in the 9th minute. From there Leeds continued to look the better side and doubled their lead in the 29th minute as United failed to clear the ball as Okafor’s volley deflected off Yoro which gave Lammens no chance and sent the away end into pandemonium. Leeds should have made it 0-3 before the half ended as Tanaka rounded Lammens only to be stopped on the line by Martinez to save United’s blushes before half-time. The second half continued the same pattern up until the game was stopped in the 55th minute for a VAR review after Martinez was seen to pull the bob out of Calvert-Lewin’s hair which was deemed to be violent play and put United down to 10 for the rest of the second half, United did pull one back as Bruno Fernandes found Casemiro at the back post who headed past Darlow to give United hope in the 69th minute. United had a few chances to score the equaliser with Casemiro’s header being cleared off the line along with Darlow making a vital save on Sesko’s header but Leeds managed to hold and secure a huge win at Old Trafford.
Is that Leeds's best performance of the season? There was times in that first half I thought I was watching Conte’s Chelsea with the way the wing-backs were moving from Leeds, Conte had Victor Moses and Marcus Alonso who seemed to embody both Jayden Bogle and Gabriel Gudmundsson who gave United nightmares all game long from the flanks. Then when they wanted to play long Calvert-Lewin won everything up there which let Leeds continue to pressurize the United defence which was shaky all night, Tanaka was excellent in the middle of the park for Leeds and looked miles clear of any other midfielder on the pitch and he was unlucky not to score after rounding Lammens in the first half. The switch of formation in the winter has saved Daniel Farke his job along with most likely keeping Leeds in the Premier League so props to the German for being able to change his entire system to one which suits the players at his disposal, some other managers would let their stubbornness get in the way and be out of a job so fair play to Daniel Farke for pivoting in the middle of the season to the 3 at the back.
The worst performance of Michael Carrick’s tenure so for. You wait over three weeks for United to play a game and they come out with one of the worst performances I’ve seen all season, as soon as I saw that Manuel Ugarte was starting I knew that we were trouble as he’s easily one of the worst players in the league with the ball at his feet, when he was moved to centre-back in the second half after the red card he actually improved which I think says a lot about him as a player. Defensively we were absolutely terrible with Leny Yoro looking really shaky alongside Lisandro Martinez who was really unfortunate to get sent off but we’ll come onto that later, going forward there were players that were miles off it with Amad Diallo putting in yet another sub-par performance in what’s becoming quite a poor season from the Ivorian. Benjamin Sesko had a few chances but lacked conviction in the final action along with Matheus Cunha who didn’t really get into the game at all from that left-hand-side, a really poor performance from United who now have three tough games on the horizon with Chelsea, Brentford and Liverpool awaiting in the next few games. A schedule which will probably determine if Michael Carrick is given the job on a full-time basis, hopefully he comes out with flying colours, I’m not so sure he will though.
A disgraceful refereeing performance from Paul Tierney and the VAR. Yet again United have been let down by the officials following the disgrace in Bournemouth last time out when Maguire got sent off for a push on Evanilson after Amad was pushed in the same way minutes before as the referee waved it away, Carrick gave out about Calvert-Lewin going in on Yoro with his forearm for the first goal but I thought that would have been harsh for the goal to be disallowed for that as Yoro was still able to get a head onto the ball. However I cannot believe the referee was brought over to the screen for the ‘hair pull’ by Lisandro Martinez on Calvert-Lewin, to send him off for violent conduct is absolute madness with the Argentine now missing United’s next three matches which is the same punishment players get for actual harmful tackles which injures players, you can’t blame Calvert-Lewin for going over to the ref but for John Brookes to bring Paul Tierney over to the monitor when we know what always happens with the referee eventually agreeing with whatever the VAR shows them, a terrible decision from a referee who had a poor game all night. I wonder if Howard Webb will have anything to say on it? Probably not.
A huge result at both ends of the table. For Leeds this is three points which takes them six clear of Spurs in 18th and keeps them above both West Ham and Nottingham Forest with Wolves at home on the weekend which might just be the game which confirms their safety in the Premier League for next season, For Man United it’s not the end of the world to lose this game as they remain in 3rd place but they are now level on points with Aston Villa with Liverpool closing in and are now only three points away from United, Chelsea remain seven points behind United with a huge clash at Stamford Bridge against the Red Devils on Saturday which Chelsea really have to win if they want to play Champions League football next season. For United it is vital that Maguire and Mainoo are back for the game on Saturday as the drop off between the first-team players and squad players is stark on today’s evidence, we’ll see on Saturday if United bounce back against an out of form Chelsea side at the Bridge.