Die Macht » disappointing not to get over the line

One victory can do many things for teams, especially when it stops a three-match losing streak. One victory, though, is nowhere near enough to make Jose Mourinho happy at the moment.After a trying week and stung by criticisms, Mourinho and Manchester United face an early tipping point in their season Saturday at Old Trafford against reigning title holders Leicester City.While Manchester United (3-0-2) are in seventh place on nine points, they are already six points behind frontrunning Manchester City, who have already outclassed them once at Old Trafford and get the chance to do so again next month in the round of 16 in the EFL Cup. Additionally, the early wins may have papered over some of the cracks in Uniteds foundation as Mourinho tries to undo some of the damage of the past two years under Louis Van Gaal.Some of those deficiencies were evident in those three successive defeats, starting with the 2-1 defeat to City on Oct. 10. United then dropped their Europa League group opener 1-0 at Feyenoord and looked out of sorts in a 3-1 defeat at Watford on Sunday.After the match, Mourinho blistered defender Luke Shaw after the match for his inability to close space, particularly on one play that led to Watfords go-ahead goal by Camilo Zuniga shortly after his introduction.It was the second straight instance Mourinho publicly singled out Shaw for this type of shortcoming since it also led to a goal by Manchester City, and reports among the English media that Shaw was disappointed by Mourinho criticizing him publicly spread like wildfire as the Portuguese manager faced his first real crisis in charge of United.He railed against his critics Thursday through an interview with MUTV, the teams in-house media following their sluggish 3-1 victory over at Northampton Town a day earlier. He admitted the team had a bad week before letting fly with one of his vintage passive-aggressive barbs.I know that some football Einsteins, they tried to delete 16 years of my career and delete an unbelievable history of Manchester United Football Club and focus on a bad week and three bad results, Mourinho said. But thats the new football -- its full of Einsteins.In this instance, though, Mourinho is the one throwing the dice and of late, theyve come up snake eyes more times than not. Starting with last seasons Community Shield loss to Arsenal, Mourinho is a stunning 13-5-14 in his last 32 matches in all competitions.By comparison, Mourinho had suffered 16 losses over 111 matches from 2013-15 and 21 over 185 in his first stint at Chelsea from 2004-08.The Shaw headache, though, has been resolved to a degree since it was revealed the defender has a groin injury -- adding to his list of lower-body problems over recent years -- and will miss this contest. However, the bigger issue that has yet to be resolved is what to do with captain and face of the franchise Wayne Rooney, who has yet to get on track this season with only one goal in seven matches.Rooney started at centre forward -- where Mourinho wants him -- at Northampton Town, but as has been the case for the past few seasons, Rooney has often backtracked further and further back to midfield to collect the ball in a bid to start the offence. His pace is slowing, and there is a legitimate chance Mourinho may drop him from the lineup for this match.But the talisman is undaunted and confident he will find his form -- and a comfortable position in Mourinhos offense to silence in his critics.Yeah I think Ive had that my while career -- a little bit more of late, but I think thats football, Rooney told MUTV. I listen to my coaches and my teammates, the people around me, and I dont really listen to what a lot of people out there are saying because a lot of it is rubbish.We got the win last night, weve got three home games coming up before the international break and its important we try to win all three games to get our season back on track.The offence has come mainly from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcus Rashford, who have combined for seven of Uniteds 11 goals thus far. Rashford sealed the victory Wednesday with a hustle goal, and Ibrahimovic has scored three of his four in Uniteds two league home matches.In some ways, this match also brings Mourinho full circle in an way, eight months after his departure from Chelsea following their 2-1 loss at Leicester City on Dec. 14 in which he fumed at his players post-match for their inability to follow his scouting reports.Leicester City (2-1-2), meanwhile, are one of five teams with seven points and enter this match 11th in the table. Unlike United, the Foxes failed to progress in the EFL Cup, losing 4-2 in extra time at home to Mourinhos former team Chelsea on Tuesday.Shinji Okazaki made his case to be included in the starting XI for this match with a pair of goals in the first 34 minutes, but Leicester frittered away that lead by allowing goals on either side of halftime. But it was also a case of Ranieri perhaps being too clever as The Tinkerman by giving 36-year-old Marcin Wasilewski his first action of the year.The veteran was at fault for Chelseas first goal and then was sent off on 89 minutes following his second yellow card. Leicester then conceded twice in extra time to Cesc Fabregas, but Ranieri took solace in Okazakis performance, noting Shinji was very determined. It is good between Shinji and (Leonardo) Ulloa they want to fight to have a chance.Though it may be too tall an ask for Okazaki to supplant Islam Slimani as Jamie Vardys strike partner after his brace in last weekends win over Burnley, the bigger concern for Ranieri is between the sticks. Kasper Schmeichel has missed the last two matches due to the lingering effects of a concussion, but the Denmark international may also be battling a lower-body injury as he tries to be match fit.Kasper is good, Ranieri told Leicesters official website. (Thursday) he made some training session but he felt a little pain to a muscle so tomorrow I check.If it is nothing serious then he will come and play, if not he will stay at home.If Schemichel cannot go, Ron-Robert Zieler will likely make his third straight start. The former Hannover 96 keeper made two saves in keeping a clean sheet against Burnley.The teams split the points in both matches last season, with the result being 1-1 on both occasions. Vardy and Bastian Schweinsteiger traded first-half goals at King Power Stadium, and Anthony Martial and Wes Morgan canceled out each other in the first 17 minutes at Old Trafford to deny Leicester a chance to outright clinch the title.Leicester City are winless in their last seven league matches (0-2-5) at Old Trafford since a 1-0 victory Jan. 31, 1998. The Foxes have just five wins all-time at The Theatre of Dreams since it opened in 1910. Adidas Nmd Cheap Uk Sale . Third-seeded Murray had the easiest path to victory on New Years Eve, barely breaking a sweat during his 6-0, 6-0 win over 2,129th-ranked Qatari wildcard recipient Mousa Shanan Zayed. Nmd r1 Uk Sale . "I was fortunate to play many years at this level with a great organization and unbelievable teammates," said Hejduk in a statement. http://www.nmdukonlinestore.com/nmd-r1-trainers-outlet-deals.html .C. United of Major League Soccer. United chose the defender in the second round of the 2013 MLS re-entry draft. Wholesale Adidas NMD R2 . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta. Adidas Nmd Chukka Outlet . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. It wasnt just that England gave India a scare on the final day. It was that, after the wretched final session in Dhaka, their batsmen proved to themselves they could succeed in these conditions and their spinners lost nothing in comparison to their Indian counterparts. Even their seamers, on a surface offering them little, could take pride in the manner they hurried and harried the Indian batsmen.They proved to India and, perhaps more importantly, to themselves, that they could challenge in this series.No-one was talking of us having a chance in this series, Alastair Cook said afterwards. But the way we played showed were in there. Its been a good five days and weve proved to everyone else that we can play.Perhaps we should have known that already. After all, England had won nine (and lost only two) of the last 13 Tests between these sides.But the defeat in Dhaka - and the manner of that defeat - evoked memories of Englands long-term struggles against spin. And, given Indias daunting home record of late, the makeshift appearance of Englands top-order and the relative lack of experience of their spinners, there were few people predicting success for them.They probably exceeded expectations on the final day. Having taken 160 overs to bowl India out in the first innings, it seemed attempting to do so in 50 overs in the second was a gesture more than a serious proposition.But when the sixth wicket fell with 10 overs left, it seemed real enough. And it wont have gone unnoticed by England that, under pressure, a couple of India batsmen made some odd choices. Ravi Ashwin drive to cover, W Saha seemed determined to hit his way out of trouble and Gautam Gambhir looked intimidated by the pace of Chris Woakes (who hardly bowled a poor ball in the match) on a slow wicket. Virat Kohli looked wonderfully solid, but elsewhere several chinks in the armour became apparent. And, as Arnold Schwarzenegger almost put it: if it bleeds, England can kill it.Criticism of Cooks declaration seems harsh. While it is true we may look back on the final afternoon in Rajkot as Englands best chance of winning a Test on this tour, it was never realistic to expect Cook to risk wasting four-and-a-half days of hard work by giving India an opportunity in the opening match of a series. Especially as this India side contains, in Kohli, one of the great chasers in the history of limited-overs cricket. The eventual target was 310 in a minimum of 49 overs but, with England scoring 34 in the final five completed overs of their innings, even a slightly earlier declaration might have given India a chance. Cook says he never considered keeping India in the field all day.We just didnt want to give India a sniff, he said. Maybe a braver person would have set them 240 but I thought it was a fair declaration, especially in the first game of the series. We had just been 180 without loss on that wicket. It wasnt a minefield.There was that outside chance, that 20-to-1 chance that we could win and youve got to take that opportunity to do that.Any analysis of the England performance has to acknowledge the substantial advantage they had in this match. Winning the toss was crucial and, had Indias fielders held on to their first-innings chances, the match might have taken a different direction. But it also has to acknowledge history. Before this game, no visiting batsmen had made a century in India since 2013. For four to now have done so reflects wwell on an England batting line-up that, at last, might be coming together.dddddddddddd. The continued development of Ben Stokes, who has gone from looking hapless against spin to looking one of Englands best players of it, is particularly obvious but we may well look back on the Rajkot Test of 2016 as the debut of a special talent in Haseeb Hameed.Hameed missed out on a debut century - selflessly trying to up the pace in an attempt to set-up the declaration - but he still registered the highest score by a teenager in Englands Test history. It would be a major surprise if he was not one of Englands openers in the Ashes in 12 months time. It has been a long, long time since they have been able to look that far ahead.The performance of Englands spinners was almost as encouraging. After struggling in Bangladesh, they responded with a much-improved display that included the best performance of Adil Rashids Test career to date. Moeen Ali, who was named man of the match, conceded fewer runs per over than Ashwin and also took as many wickets in fewer overs, while Zafar Ansari had a better strike-rate than his left-arm counterpart Ravi Jadeja. The influence of Saqlain Mushtaq, who seems to have inspired more confidence in all of them, has been telling.Our three spinners came in for a lot of criticism after Bangladesh, Cook said. But they bowled a lot better. It has been great to have Saqlain Mushtaq here and he has made a massive difference for those guys. They bowled really well.Cook looked exhausted at the end. Despite admitting he had been struggling for form, he still managed to compile his 30th Test century - only 10 men have more now - but he accepted that his side had put a lot in for little tangible reward. For both sides, managing tired players is going to be an issue as the series progresses.Its been a hard five days, Cook said. A tough Test. Weve put everything on the line and played some really good cricket. Its disappointing not to get over the line, but it was a great Test and everyone can be proud of the way they played. If we hit the same standards as weve done there, well be okay. Its just about repeating it.Im feeling fairly jaded now and I think the lads. Its been bloody hard work, I can tell you that.With that in mind, England may refresh the side with the addition of James Anderson for the second Test starting on Thursday. While it remains more likely he will return for the third Test, it could be that he replaces a spinner - probably Ansari - if England decide the pitch will offer him anything. It seems more probable that the Visakhapatnam surface will encourage spinners.England know that tougher challenges lie ahead. They know the pitches will turn more and they know that they wont always win the toss. But this performance means they will face those challenges with confidence in their own games high and the knowledge that they are up against an opponent that can be beaten.There is still a bit of room for improvement. Had Cook held on to a relatively simple chance offered by Mohammed Shami in the first innings, England would have taken a first-innings lead of 77 and, had their over-rate been better on Friday, they would have had another four overs at the India batsmen in the second innings.But these are minor quibbles. This was an encouraging start. ' ' '