Manchester United Away Lost 3 -1
Could our attacking force of Fernandes, Dibling and Sulemana, who had looked potent against Swansea, provide the same threat in the Premier League, at Manchester United? The consensus was ‘probably not’ but Ivan stuck by them, although the question looked immaterial in the early stages as Saints struggled to get any possession our side of the half way line. That began to change, though, and, hey, there’s some chances being created, although it’s hard to get a decent perspective from the away section at The Theatre of Dreams. The ‘if only’ moments for us were matching anything threatened by United and then, just before the interval, the ball was in the net, no-one really knowing how; what seems to have happened is that, following a touch by Dibling, Ugarte was in the wrong place at the wrong time to guide the ball past Onuna. With Sulemana able to turn Diallo and Yoro and outpace them at will, and the Reds having to commit more men forward, this was a good place for us to be tactically but the shape changed when Dibling limped off and rather negatively was replaced by Smallbone. At least that was an enforced change, but Ivan’s next moves were discretionary and didn’t work out very well for us. Ugochukwu and Aribo’s strength was helping us steer clear of too much trouble at the back, although it was a bonus when Antony dos Santos managed to steer his open goal effort back to the grateful arms of Ramsdale. The manager criticised the performance of his subs, and seems to have singled out one in particular, an analysis shared by my peer group post match, but I don’t think it wise to say such things in public, not if you wish to maintain a happy squad. Maybe he wants to expunge a losing mentality as Saints turned an 80th minute lead into yet another defeat. Diallo was having his troubles with Sulemana but he was also proving a handful for Walker-Peters and when he got past his marker, home fans who were drifting away suddenly turned back with the match all square. Ten minutes later, with the clock now moving into added time, Diallo again scored, this time thanks to a sublime assist by Eriksen. There were hopes of an unlikely equaliser from a corner, as long as we kept it away from Tall Paul, but when play switched to the other end, Harwood-Bellis moved into Russball mode and presented Diallo with his hat trick. Time to drudge back to the hotel and prepare for another stiff test at Nottingham.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates for you to choose from:
7. Joe Aribo. One of those ‘why doesn’t he always play like this?’ days…
20 Kamaldeen Sulemana, suddenly a player we’d like to keep rather than get rid of.
38. Lesley Ugochukwu… and why doesn’t he always play like this?
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