Arriving back in Manchester early Friday morning played a big part, but they were wo Madison and Barnes.
Fred and Martial very poor. Ndidi and Tielemans bossing midfield. Rodgers outsmarting Ole.
That's true, but just as they were without Maddison and Barnes we were without Fernandes and Shaw (in the first half) and Rashford, and I would add De Gea who really is the better keeper.
I won't quibble with the starting XI, except to say that I would like to see VdB anbd Bruno together, which I realize means only one of Fred, McTominay and Matic starting. In such a circumstance, I'd definitely go with Bailly over Lindelof, who put in a decent enough shift today but to me is inferior to a fit Bailly.
But today wasn't the day to field our best XI as we do have to be mindful of fitness and risk of injury, regardless of whether an international break is coming up. Looking back, though, I would have gone with this:
Henderson (fine, bench De Gea)
AWB Bailly Maguire Telles (Shaw is superior, but Telles needs games)
McTominay
Van De Beek Fernandes Pogba
Greenwood Martial (I'm sick of Martial's laziness, but we had no choice)
The obvious objection would be that McTominay would get overrun, but I have a lot of confidence in Bailly, which I realize most here don't share. But the front foot would have been ours, Bruno's and Pogba's long and mid range passing complementing Donny's short range passing. If we could somehow shoot a rocket up the ass of Martial, who has no claim to being fatigued, we could have sliced up a decent but far from commanding Leicester City back line.
But as it was, Leicester City fully deserved the win, regardless of the fact that we gifted them three gilt-lined goals, the first being shocking beyond all belief.