Leicester vs Manchester United: Vardy’s Record Goal, Rooney’s Place in the XI Feature in the Five Talking Points

The top of the table clash in the Premier League ended in a 1-1 draw, but the game will always be remembered as the day when Jamie Vardy broke Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record of scoring in 10 consecutive games. Leicester’s star man was always going to be in the headlines –it is incredible he was able to match Ruud’s record as it is – and he scored in the first half to break Ruud’s record as he ran behind the Manchester United backline and slotted past David de Gea amid rapturous scenes.

Manchester United though are made of gritty stuff and levelled from a corner on the stroke of halftime thanks to Bastian Schweinsteiger’s first goal for the club. The German headed the corner in after defeated Okazaki in a wrestling match in the box.

The second half saw Manchester United dominate possession but could not find the back of the net and Leicester were happy to sit back and defend while hitting United on the counter attack. The match ended in a 1-1 draw and neither team can complain about the result. We look back at the game and provide the three talking points.

How far can Vardy go?

So that is 11 games in which Jamie Vardy has scored, he could make it 12, 13 or even 14 who knows? No one could have predicted this at the start of the season, even if it is a purple patch, Vardy does deserve a lot of credit for how he has gone about his performances.

Vardy is now an established star in the Premier League and could continue scoring, how many can he get by the end of the season and more importantly will he move away to a bigger club at the end of the season? If Leicester keep playing like they have all season, they could actually make it into Europe and that would be a great result for a team that surely one of the contenders for the relegation zone this season.

Manchester United dominate with no end product

It was a similar story against Watford, but United got the goal right at the death but this time there was no reward. Manchester United might have been rocked by Vardy’s goal but they did well to get back and they dominated the second half having almost 70% of the possession.

For all that possession, they rarely tested Kasper Schmeichel and the Leicester defence had a pretty easy evening. This is a problem which United have to rectify, keeping possession isn’t winning the game, scoring goals are and that is something which they just cannot seem to do.

Rooney should not be in the starting XI

There was this one moment in the second half when Wayne Rooney tried to score off a save from Kasper Schmeichel but ended up getting a boot in the chest from Robert Huth that just encapsulates his season in a nutshell.

Wayne Rooney is trying his best but does not seem to have the quality to chance games that he used to do all those years ago. He needs to take a break and maybe Van Gaal needs to replace him in the starting XI. He just isn’t giving the team enough and has to be dropped, it is hurting United and isn’t making him look any better. Of course, they didn’t look any better when they brought on Memphis for Rooney in the second half.

Shackle Martial and that’s job done

While Rooney had done missing, Anthony Martial was a forlorn figure against Leicester, I had to recheck at the end of the game if the Frenchman was playing and that again is a story of Manchester United.

Leicester did well to keep him quiet and there went away Manchester United’s best attacking option. Martial might be young but he needs to get his head up and understand situations, he wasn’t doing much in the game and although this was just one game where he failed to do much, it does give teams an idea of how to nullify the Manchester United attack.

Louis van Gaal has the right to be upset

In the post – match interview, Louis van Gaal stated that he was extremely upset about how the game ended and that United did not get the win after dominating possession at least. He has every right to be upset, especially the way they conceded the Vardy goal, which they should have defended better.

While I do not agree with him naming players during the interview, United have to be better at killing off games. A bit of the buck also lies with Van Gaal who seems to have brought a better defence at the expense of the famed United attack, but they have to do more in the final third of the pitch.