Key Takeaways for Manchester United from their game against Leicester City

Defence

Victor Lindelof & Eric Bailly - Manchester United v Leicester City - Premier League

For all the talk in the pre-season regarding the United backline, it was a positive performance from the two centre-backs. Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof started for United in the centre of defence with Darmian as the right-back and Luke Shaw on the left. Matteo Darmian may not have had the best of nights but, the rest of the backline had a good first game of the season.

Lindelof having started training late, after his exploits with Sweden at the World Cup, seemed to have carried his good form from Russia to Manchester. There were a few times that Bailly and Lindelof lacked a bit of communication but, they were lucky that Leicester did not capitalize on those situations.

Jamie Vardy created a bit of trouble for Bailly especially, evidenced with Vardy's equalizer. But, the two would be happy with the shifts they have put in. Set-pieces and one on ones were handled very well by both the central defenders. On the left, Luke Shaw put in a good performance as well. Barring a couple of mistakes, he seemed to cope well with Leicester's efforts down his flank and also got forward frequently to get into good attacking positions. The young Englishman capped off his night with a well-taken first senior goal in front of the Stretford End.

If Bailly and Lindelof keep fit and continue to put in similar performances, they could form a formidable defensive partnership for years to come. Maybe, just maybe, United's failure in the transfer market could be a blessing in disguise. Also, Luke Shaw will be desperate to impress Mourinho in these early matches so as to replace an age defying Ashley Young in that left-back spot. He has done himself no harm with his performance.