Nullified? Look at the words you use when discussing us play an inferior team. We don’t need James when playing Leeds. We need to create/score and a player like James limits our ability to do so. We will see more of the same crap next season while finish top 4 because our manager isn’t ruthless enough. Multimillion pound team having to adjust to others.
Look at Leeds. Look at what they did to the champions on Monday, and the champions elect the week before. Every game they've played up to now, they have been the team on the front foot, the team to press the initiative even when it was suicide, but in this game we forced the famously cavalier Bielsa to essentially employ a deep and low block with 11 men. That hasn't happened at all this season.
We thought that we did need James because Pogba was the alternative. A Pogba who is famously vulnerable to the press and who is also inconsistent in his defensive application. When you're going man for man which we thought Leeds would do (because they hadn't changed tack at all up to now) you need that high energy approach. Likewise, McFred absolutely smothered their midfield 5. They gave us the base from which we could dominate the game and possession. We also limited Leeds to their joint-lowest xG score this season, and I think for the second time this season they had been out possessed in a match (the other time being City).
Our attack didn't turn up and that's why we didn't win but the overall approach was a good one and I'd argue that it was a lot better than the 6-2. We exerted much more control and outside of a few instances, we made sure we didn't play Leeds' game. Likewise, Leeds were stronger opponents and they learnt from their mistakes from the last time which made it more of a stalemate but even so, we were a fully firing Rashford and Bruno away from getting the 2 to 3 goals our game plan deserved.
Also, this manager that you say isn't ruthless enough took a sledgehammer to Jose's squad. He's gotten rid of or sidelined as much as 10 players from that team who finished 2nd and the only reason he hasn't gotten rid of more is because he has a bunch of useless cnuts above him who didn't get him the players he clearly needed and wanted last summer. He has 2nd right now with a squad which has as much as 4 gaping holes in its 1st XI and a regular starting midfield of McFred. Ask anyone here if they thought we'd be here at this point of the season after the 6-1 v Spurs or after that shitheap of a transfer window, and you'll have been laughed out of the room. Especially since Liverpool, Arsenal, City, Chelsea, and Spurs all had much stronger transfer windows than us, and managers that you probably said were all levels above Ole.
Give him some respect for the job he's done, FFS. He needed backing last summer, and he needs it again this summer but I doubt we'll see him get it, and we'll again see the clueless among us decry him as being clueless or "not ruthless enough".
I must of been watching a different match as I certainly didn't think we played well. Can only think/hope we had our minds on Thursdays game.