Manchester United's Daley Blind was in superb form against Leicester City on Saturday. Ahead of the season, the versatile Dutchman was widely expected to be one of the players with whom Jose Mourinho would dispense, per Sky Sports. Instead, he was one of the manager's starting centre-backs.At least, he was until after the Manchester derby. Blind was given a torrid time by Kevin De Bruyne and made errors for both Manchester City goals. It always looked like City would offer the first proper test for the Blind and Eric Bailly partnership, and so it proved. It would be generous to give them a passing grade.However, fast-forward a few weeks and an injury to Luke Shaw offered opportunity for Blind to shine in perhaps his best position: left-back.And shine he did. Both in defence against Riyad Mahrezfor the first half at leastand in attack alongside Marcus Rashford on the left flank, Blind was an integral force.The first port of call for analysis, fairly obviously, has to be his corners. After all, they made the telling difference in the match. He earned two assists and one hockey assistfrom them.The first was a fine cross for Chris Smalling. Leicester's defenders did not earn themselves a lot of credit, but nonetheless, Blind's delivery was inch-perfect.He lined up to take a left-footed outswinger, with most of United's heavy-hitting aerial threats gathered around the far edge of the six-yard box. He successfully swung the ball out of 'keeper Ron-Robert Zieler's reach, over the first clump of Leicester defenders and into the danger zone. Smalling obliged with the goal, and United had the lead.That lead dramatically changed the tone of the game and the atmosphere in the ground. As Juan Mata wrote in his blog:"Taking the lead gave us more confidence and helped to create a great atmosphere in the stadium."So Blind's excellent capacity to make a football go where he wants it to when he kicks it was on show for the first goal. The second showed his other great quality: speed of thought.Leicester's defending for the Smalling goal was questionable given the England man ended up with close to a free header. For the third, it was shambolic, and Blind took full advantage.He spotted that the champions were not set and slid a ball into Mata, who in turn found goalscorerRashford. It was abysmal organisation, but taking advantage of the moment required quick thinking. In Blind, Mata and Rashford, United had no shortage of football intelligence with which to capitalise.Blind's second direct assist was again about excellence of execution and slightly questionable defending. This time, the ball was stood up to the near side of the edge of the six-yard box. It looked pre-planned given Paul Pogba broke for that area as soon as the ball was stuckeasily evading the attentions of his marker.To score three goals from corners in the same game will obviously rely on some degree of good fortune given how rare an occurrence it is. But United's only direct assist from a corner in the league last season also came from Blind, so it is not a great surprise that putting him back on set-piece duties bore fruit.Leicester made his deliveries look even better, but they were at the very least decent.Two assists and an integral ballfrom his set pieces would have been contribution enough. But his all-around game was also excellent.He was heavily involved, with 101 touches of the ballonly Pogba, Ander Herrera and Antonio Valencia had morethe four of them having 47 per cent of the Red Devils' touches between them.He completed 85.3 per cent of his 68 passes, which is a remarkably good number for a player who was playing with such a bold, forward-looking outlook. He attempted eight crossesmore than anyone else on the pitchand found a team-mate with two, also more than anyone else on the pitch.He made more tackles than any other United playerfourwhich was part of the reason Mahrez had such a quiet game.The tone was set in the first minute. Mahrez got past Pobga and shaped up to dribble around Blind, but the Netherlands international scooped the ball off his feet, played a simple pass to Pogba and opened up a counter-attacking opportunity.At around the 11-minute mark, he faced the PFA Players' Player of the Yearunder more difficult circumstances, with the Algeria international running at him in full control at close to full speed. Blind closed down the space, nudged Mahrez off balance and got a foot on the ballan object lesson in how to use intelligence to counteract speed and technical ability.Blind makes mistakes, as we saw against De Bruyne, but when he gets it right, watching him defend is a joy.In possession, he combined well with Rashford on the left flank. The corner from which Smalling opened the scoring came about as a result of their understanding. Blind lost the ball, but Rashford was alive to the possibilities and headed a through ball into space. Blind latched onto it, firing in the cross that was cleared behind.Blind was also prepared to unleash longer passes than usual into the channels given Rashford's electric speed.As the diagram below shows, he also exchanged a good deal of passes with Pogba. The Frenchman'sperformance was no doubt helped by Blind's presence.At Juventus, a close connection on and off the pitch with Patrice Evra seemingly helped Pogba. On the pitch, at least, Blind provided that function here. Wayne Rooney's absence obviously helped the world-record singingin terms of freeing up the space in which he could operate, but Blind's presence made a difference too.Blind never let his intensity drop, either. At half-time, Demarai Gray replaced Mahrezand scored a fine goal, albeit from the left side of Leicester's attack. But with Gray on the ball, Blind showed his hustle, closing down space all the way into Leicester's half, forcing Gray to check back. Once he had, Blind did not stop, pressing forward and making the tackle.As the tweets peppered throughout this article show, United fans responded warmly to his performance. He has plenty of admirers. There are detractors too, and in truth, his big-mistake-to-outstanding-performance ratio means the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. But when he is good, he is extremely good.It will be intriguing to see what the future holds for him at United. It seems nearly impossible to imagineMourinho will make him a first-choice centre-back for the long termthe fact he was dropped after the derby tells a story there. At left-back, Shaw's presence means there is certainly no presumption of automatic selection.Mourinhohas yet to try him in midfield.More likely than an automatic first-choice spot, then, is a continued presence as a utility player. There will be more run-outs on the left and in the middle. Few of them will be as complete as his performance against Leicester, but many of them will feature great moments.Blind has limitations, but he is clearly a genuine talent. His presence in the squad is one of the positive legacies of Louis van Gaal's time in charge of United. The doubts around whether Mourinho would take advantage of it are fading fast. Advanced data per WhoScored.com.
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