It was a winning start to Jose Mourinho’s managerial career at Manchester United as the side claimed the first trophy of the season. The Community Shield might be a one-off match but it did provide a stern test for the Manchester side as they took on defending Premier League Champions Leicester City.
Jesse Lingard scored the opening goal of the game for the FA Cup winners before Jamie Vardy equalised for Leicester City. Zlatan Ibrahimovic fired United into the lead with a header and ensured United claimed the Shield.
Here are the five talking points from the match.
1) Mourinho to be judged against both trophies and style of play.
Jose Mourinho claimed initially that his United side would play attacking football, and fans could hope to see a return of both the excitement and glory that was prevalent during Sir Alex Ferguson’s time at Old Trafford. However, just recently he admitted that his players would take time to shake off the mould and playing style of Louis van Gaal’s tenure.
The first half was a cagey affair with no real flow to the game, and yet again United were guilty of ponderous possession with no real end-product. Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw were a threat down the left, and Antonio Valencia also had a decent half. The game became more open in the second half as United stitched together some great attacking moves, and they did end up as winners on the night.
Mourinho has started off on the right path but more improvement is definitely needed in the team cohesion and style of play if United are to be champions of England and Europe again.
2) New signings make their presence felt
If all eyes were on Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic for the game, just shortly before kickoff it was officially announced by United that Paul Pogba would have soon have a medical with them to complete his transfer from Juventus. You would be forgiven if you forgot that Mourinho had actually made another possibly crucial signing for his United team – centre-back Eric Bailly.
Bailly had a brilliant first half and displayed great speed and power to snuff out any Leicester attacks, but had a poor second half and was eventually penalised for a clumsy tackle on Vardy. Zlatan didn’t have the best game of his life, as he forced to drop deep to link up with his attacking partners, and was reduced to a few good flicks here and there. But when the moment came, he seized it and won the game for United with a well-placed header. Mkhitaryan was on for only a few minutes.
On the other side, record signing Ahmed Musa who scored two goals against Barcelona in the last game again had a hand to play in Vardy’s goal for Leicester (though it had an errant back-pass from Fellaini). Leicester will hope he makes a major contribution this season.
3) What does the season hold for Leicester City?
It just seems like yesterday when Leicester were crowned as Premier League champions, but there hasn’t been much time to soak it all in, and as Claudio Ranieri points out, they may well be fighting relegation this season by setting a modest target of 40 points.
Vardy scored a typical Vardy goal, but fellow star attacker Riyad Mahrez had a terrible game and nothing came off for him. Long balls from Marc Albrighton and Danny Drinkwater were almost always misplaced, as Leicester played an unfamiliar possession game coupled with a high defensive line for sizeable part of the game. They also had a major defensive collapse when Lingard avoided as many as 7 of their players for his goal.
It would seriously be improbable for them to win the league again, and naturally, there is only one place to go once you’re at the top, and that is down. Regardless of the disappointing result, Leicester should definitely aim to establish themselves firmly as a mid-table team in the Premier League for years to come.
4) Lingard magic again at Wembley but is there a future for him at United?
In what was a dire first half, Jesse Lingard decided to pop up and relive the ecstatic memories from a couple of months ago where he scored against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final to break United’s three-year trophy drought. Skipping past 6 defenders, he slotted home past Kasper Schmeichel to give United the lead.
However, he is almost surely behind the likes of Martial and Mkhitaryan in the wide areas, and centrally Juan Mata and Wayne Rooney would likely be preferred over him. There is also competition from Marcus Rashford and Memphis Depay.
There is tremendous competition for places and it might stall his development. Adnan Januzaj was also loaned out last season after a great start. It remains to be seen what Mourinho does, but for now, he is a part of Mourinho’s vision for the future.
Speaking of which, how long will he play with half a makeshift back line? Valencia and Daley Blind have been performing well but it’s hard to imagine Mourinho will build his empire around that defence. Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini also have no guarantees with the imminent arrival of Pogba. So there is a small chance that Mourinho might not close his window after he makes his fourth marquee signing.
5) Fans shouldn’t get excited about Zlatan – Rooney partnership yet
Mourinho fielded practically his best XI for the Community Shield match, and the biggest headline was Zlatan Ibrahimovic leading the line for United in his first official match, with Wayne Rooney playing behind him in the attacking midfielder/support striker role.
Zlatan had a below-par game but delivered the winning goal just when the tie threatened to head into penalties. His much-anticipated partnership with Rooney failed to completely impress. They were caught offside on at least three occasions, hampered by their lack of pace, and they were having to both drop deep far too often to allow the wide men to press on ahead.
Zlatan recently claimed his partnership with Rooney would be perfect, but it remains to be seen how they deliver over the course of this season.
