Match Statistics: Leicester City 3-1 Manchester United
As the fourth official’s board was lifted 64 minutes after Manchester United’s clash with Leicester City, there was an element of surprise that went along with it.
It is not that United were making four replacements at once.
Ole Gunnar Solskar’s much-changed side had a pathetic performance in their FA Cup quarter-finals, and it was clear that the cavalry needed to make an effort to get things right.
No, the surprise was that Fred had escaped from Solszer’s coil of his early playing XI.
Dean Henderson was called into action to save Dean Henderson from Jamie Verdi due to his initial error in failing to throw from Aaron Van-Bissacca at the Brazilian King Power Stadium.
This set the tone, and after two more instances of Fred giving the ball away in midfield, his most serious mistake was made.
Under pressure and facing his goal, when he controlled a pass by Harry Maguire on the edge of United’s penalty area, the 28-year-old was only able to stamp through the inch-inch ball en route to Kyle Echinach, as it were. That he saw was the ball to get back to Henderson.
The in-form Leicester forward made no mistake with his finish, and although United went level at half-time after Donny van de Beek’s delightful dummy, allowing Paul Pogba to set up Mason Greenwood to equalize, Die Was inserted
Should have encouraged Solskjaer’s team At half-time it was reported that he would play not Chelsea or Manchester City, but Southampton in the semi-finals.
But instead it was the other side that put the Saints past nine in recent times, which emerged galvanized for the second period, with Brendan Rodgers’ team deserving their final 3–1 victory.
“We didn’t have the spark tonight – but it makes sense,” explained Solskjaer BBC Sport. “It just caught up with us, all sports and travel.
“Thursday night was a big night in Milan and took a lot of us physically. We didn’t have the extra zip, authority and confidence today.”
That zip and authority might have vanished, but it was Fred – one of the six players who made his debut in the San Siro against AC Milan earlier in the week – who stood out as United’s weak link.
It was a performance coming from the former Shekhar Donetsk man, with his performance in the first half on Thursday being particularly bad as he improved after the breakup.
Inconsistency A player was bought for £ 52.5 million ($ 70m) three years in a row, and a game that could not lose one of his worst outings at United.
He and Nemanja Matic were bossed in the midfield by their opposite numbers Wilfred Nadidi and Yuri Tielemans, and it was the latter that gave Leicester an early lead in the second half.
The Belgian international nested both Fred and Viktor Lindelof in the bottom corner before failing to engage the tielemen.
United can only aspire to make such an impact in attack for their own deep midfielders. Instead, they generally rely almost entirely on Bruno Fernandes to claim that they originate from the central regions, and it was no surprise that he was one of a quartet of players whom the game spent its final 25 minutes on. Had entered
Fernandes teamed up with compatriots Luke Shaw, Edinson Cavani and Scott McTominay to give United more emphasis, but it was Fred’s another error that eventually sealed his elimination.
The Red Devils tried to launch a counterattack, in which they protected Leicester.
Just a minute later, Ihnacho was heading away in the free-kick at the back post. A tie-over without a domestic trophy, preventing an unexpected collapse from City in the Premier League, and United’s race now extend to four years.
“I would have done again what the changes needed to do,” Solaskar insisted that he defended his team’s selection for such a significant change.
And yet it was a player who had started 13 of United’s last 15 matches that let his manager down.
Leave a Reply