Leicester City 3:1 Manchester United

Harry Harries said:

I'm sorry but the Europa League is the least sexy cup. I couldn't care less about fecking Granada. Absolutely gutting this one.

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Gets us into Pot 1 if we win it, more chance of lots more money, that's if we get out of the group stage of course.

The first 15 minutes things looked good but then we switched off and began making horrendous, school boy errors and giving the ball away. Fred had the worst game Ive seen from him, Matic looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, Martial started lively but then seemed to lose heart. VDB had the opportunity to show what he could do but never got into the game at all.....and Pogba, well, he too had a great chance to prove he was the player we thought he was by stepping into Brunos boots and taking control; he started well enough but very quickly began falling to the ground and waving at the ref for a free kick, just as he has done so many times, and gradually he drifted out of the game. It wasn't Pogbas fault we lost but he contributed nothing for most of the hour or so he was on the pitch. After his display against Milan I praised him, but where was that player today? Surely, enough is enough.
The substitutions kicked a bit of life into the rest of the team but the second goal, again players switched off, killed us because Leicester are too well drilled to concede two goals against the run of play. I hope we see Martial, Pogba, VDB & Matic leaving this summer; Matic has been a great player for us but his best days are behind him now.

Winning the Europa League gives us Champions League qualification and seeding. So, if there was one game to lose this week it was this one.

BUT

The manner of that loss puts the spotlight on our squad. Leicester were missing the likes of Maddison, Barnes and Justin and they dealt with us easily.

For the money that's been spent on this squad its shamefully weak.

talking robot said:

Might not be the worst thing in the world to have been knocked out of the FA cup. Will probably increase the odds of winning the Europa League and finishing 2nd in the league as we won't be stretched so thin during the run-in. Honestly if you had told me prior to the Man City game that'd we'd win vs. City, win vs. west ham, and go through against Milan but lose to Leicester, I would definitely have taken that.

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I'd take winning the fa cup, europa league and finishing 4th over just finishing 2nd or finishing 2nd with the europa league. There's no trophy for finishing 2nd! 2nd, 3rd and 4th are all the same.

DomesticTadpole said:

Not sure I like much about this side after today.

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True, I'm close to giving up on quite a few. There's too many simply not good enough.

And let's not forget that Leicester are a club that always has to sell their best players. Kante, Mahrez, Chilwell... Maguire!

Imagine how fecked we would be if we were forced to sell Bruno... doesn't bear thinking about.

VidaRed said:

Its not a priority but it could have been whispered to the manager atleast when they were in the dugout in the second half or when they were coming out for the second half.

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and what effect seriously do you think that could have done? Increased efforts? Not buying it myself

We should win the EL, but I can't pretend to believe we will. I hope to be proved wrong, because on paper we must be winning it.

elnorte said:

As always we play the most entertaining football in the league but lapses in concentration continue to be our undoing.

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I'd like to discuss this point with you but the best I could come up with is

Did anyone genuinely see our midfield of Fred and Matic against Ndidi and Tielemans and expect a positive result???

Absolutely unforgivable to rest McT, Bruno and Shaw for a cup QF, and what for, fecking internationals!!!

Swearing Budgie said:

And let's not forget that Leicester are a club that always has to sell their best players. Kante, Mahrez, Chilwell... Maguire!

Imagine how fecked we would be if we were forced to sell Bruno... doesn't bear thinking about.

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It's the fact they have such a great scouting network to find the these players. We just constantly get duped and try to convince ourselves we have done great.

Basically looked like two fairly even teams in a QF, one well rested the other not. One with their only shot at a trophy, the other still in another tourney. Ole was given hardly any sort of boost teamwise in the offseason but expected by many here to challenge for titles. In the year of COVID schedules. Too many blame him for on field performances where the players are not good enough. No manager walks into this team at the beginning of THIS year and challenges on all fronts Yet Ole is being beaten up for it. Still think he has them doing better than many thought, he has some things to work on but some will never give credit for anything but a treble.

DomesticTadpole said:

Gets us into Pot 1 if we win it, more chance of lots more money, that's if we get out of the group stage of course.

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Sod the money, the noodle sponsors and the commercial boon. The FA Cup is an historic trophy with proper pedigree that we had a very real chance of winning.

Golden chance to go all the way to the final and we feck up. It's obvious we lack the know how when that little extra is needed. I'm talking tactics and team selection not player performances. We just don't have it neither in our manager or coaching staff.

Also, before people start talking about our backups not being good enough to beat this Leicester team. Let's consider that they are playing without Maddison, Barnes, Pereira, Under and Justin in their squad. Four of those players are vital first team player's.

Jericholyte2 said:

Did anyone genuinely see our midfield of Fred and Matic against Ndidi and Tielemans and expect a positive result???

Absolutely unforgivable to rest McT, Bruno and Shaw for a cup QF, and what for, fecking internationals!!!

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Thats doing my head in.

DomesticTadpole said:

The manager can help it when he choses Fred and Matic, he chose them. While he is here the same mistakes will be made over and over again. Yes the players have to take responsibility, but Ole and his coaches are responsible for preparation and tactics. I hope we do win the EL, but I am not sure Ole couldn't come up with some amazing new way to mess it up. Also the summer will be interesting. Martial, Matic, Fred have to go and just hope the few decent players we have don't ask to leave as well.

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Who do you play instead of Fred and Matic? It's not like we have a DM waiting on the wings to come in. What tactics say that Fred shouldn't weight a simple pass? Or Matic to lose his runner? Or McT to leave the far post unguarded where it was his only job? Or VdB to not show up after having an entire season to catch up with the speed of our play? I'm not absolving Ole of blame here, he gambled and he lost. But the team he put out there should not be presenting goals to the opposition. That's on the players.

And the summer will indeed be interesting. But I've got zero faith in the owners, their under-investment during SAF's tenure and mis-investment after it is why we have the squad we do and they are not willing to put the funds in that is required to catch up.

It is Manchester United's job to stop Manchester City from winning a quadruple. We have owners that don't care about our club or our history and only care about the £ it takes from our pockets. We have management and decision by inexperienced, scared, unequipped ex-players. We have players that almost to a man only care about getting payed. Where is there heart? Where is their courage?
Man City are going to systematically pick apart our achievements and instead of standing up to be counted we will shrink away!

When the wallpaper of this season falls off I will be surprised if there are even walls at all anymore.

Judas said:

We should win the EL, but I can't pretend to believe we will. I hope to be proved wrong, because on paper we must be winning it.

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We should. We could have last year. He has now put the emphasis on the EL, so he has no excuses if he doesn't win it. You just hope they can pick themselves up, I say they, as not sure you can rely on Ole to do it. You don't want it to be a dip in form at precisely the wrong time. We have to get second at the very minimum.

Big game during the week and it looked like a lot of the players were feeling it. It can happen, particularly against a good side. Of all of the other reasons to worry this season, I’m not sure today was high up the list.

RedRJ said:

Completely agree. I’d also say that, although I really want VDB to succeed, I just can’t see it happening. Every time he gets the ball he just passes it back to a defender; Bruno can be frustrating when he tries really difficult passes, but he never stops trying. VDB needs to raise his fame several notches to become a regular starter. Oh and Fred/ Matic - hilariously bad.

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Yeah, its a shame but VDB just doesn't look a good fit for how we want to play. If he could make himself a deeper midfielder that gets involved in defending it could work, but like you said hes too safety first when we try to release our forwards.

Jericholyte2 said:

Did anyone genuinely see our midfield of Fred and Matic against Ndidi and Tielemans and expect a positive result???

Absolutely unforgivable to rest McT, Bruno and Shaw for a cup QF, and what for, fecking internationals!!!

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Perhaps they were feeling a bit of fatigue.

Darren Fletcher will sort this all out. No worries.

It's going to be a shit 2 weeks

What I don't get is Ole started Bruno against Sociedad when we were 4 away goals up, but decided to start him on the bench in a match we needed to win?

Seems threads are being deleted.

The game today showed us, that there is still a lot of work in front of us, before we can challenge for e.g. the premier league again. There are too many average players (Fred, Matic, Martial, Lindelöf, Donny).

Rustyspider13 said:

Who do you play instead of Fred and Matic? It's not like we have a DM waiting on the wings to come in. What tactics say that Fred shouldn't weight a simple pass? Or Matic to lose his runner? Or McT to leave the far post unguarded where it was his only job? Or VdB to not show up after having an entire season to catch up with the speed of our play? I'm not absolving Ole of blame here, he gambled and he lost. But the team he put out there should not be presenting goals to the opposition. That's on the players.

And the summer will indeed be interesting. But I've got zero faith in the owners, their under-investment during SAF's tenure and mis-investment after it is why we have the squad we do and they are not willing to put the funds in that is required to catch up.

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The marking at set pieces is down to bad coaching or extremely stupid players. Probably a bit of both. Also you only catch up with the speed of our play if you are playing. He needed to have the courage to say, I am putting you in there for at least ten games as you did not get a pre-season. Taking a new player in and out does not do them any favours. Looking at the Leicester midfield I cannot believe we bought Fred. Matic definitely needs replacing. They should have done it a couple of years back instead of handing him a new contract. SAF was ruthless and knew exactly when to get rid of players.

Keep aside the fact Leicester had a week to prepare for the game and they had clear plan.
Our coaching staff looked like they tried to come up with a plan to counter them -
pack the midfield and try to overcome their high press, but it just didn't work. Fred and Pogba got bullied
and we were giving the ball away too many times. Lack of options for the man in possession.
Lack of any runners, lack of any understanding between the two attackers.

Yeah, that game just highlighted what's wrong with the team at the moment.

Martial going back to his usual useless contribution, poor at holding up and lack of any urgency from him.
VDB lacking confidence, not growing in the game and looking like a round peg in a square hole.
Fred proving once more that he's limited. Yes, he's had good games, but if we want to make that step up
we need someone better. Someone who can see a pass and is a threat at the edge of the box. Not just
distributing it left and right. Just the energy is not enough.
Cavani didn't seem as if he's that eager to make an impact.

On the good note, we'll have a couple of fixtures less, so we could concentrate on cementing our place
in the league and if we manage to get the job done in Spain, we could recoup energy and the squad would be
at full disposal come the end of the season. Pogba got minutes, so did Amad and Greenwood managed to
score again. Makes you wonder if he was getting more service what could it have been.

Looking ahead into the next season it's obvious where the team should strengthen:

• An upgrade in the midfield. A player who could be defensively solid next to Pogba, but also be a more adventurous compared to Fred, if paired with one of McT or the Brazilian in case Pogba is not playing.
  
  
• A right winger. The threat we pose from the right is almost non existent. AWB is still young and learning on improving his attacking output.
  
  
• A striker. Top class striker. Not a makeshift pre-retirement #9 on a one year deal. Don't get me wrong. Cavani has good movement and a great header in him, but I don't see him committed to our cause and his inability to shift the ball out of his feet and strike it or his poor tapping in just doesn't cut it. We need someone to be in competition with Greenwood and push each other. Martial is not it either.
  
  

This loss is a hard to swallow pill, but we have to look forward and hope that being knocked out is a blessing
in disguise.

At least Fred can be good sometimes, but Matic??

We needed this to be fair, but nothing will change. I'm gradually coming round to thinking we need a change of manager. I don't like that, but it's how it is. Point being, the way I see it is a lot of our problems stem from the forwards, they just don't move. The midfield have noone to pass to as the forwards are so static. You see it all the time, the midfield then go sideways or backwards - can you blame them? Ole was a great forward, but for me, the coaching is falling down in the fact that he can't get his forwards to offer options,.

Abject. Was looking forward to a decent game against a decent team. End up getting schooled big time. No-one turned up, except maybe Telles; and Ole’s post match interview was a disgrace. Excuse after excuse.

This felt like the semi final vs Chelsea last year. Awful performance from so many players.

One of those games where you come out thinking we need about 3-4 more players than you thought before kick off.

Ole will likely blame the Thursday - Sunday schedule, saying it caught up with us today, but he should hang his head in shame after that game. It’s decision making like he demonstrated today (with the starting lineup, the tactics, and the substitutions) that convince many that he’s just doesn’t have the quality we need in a Manager. Absolutely dreadful from him today.

Beyond that, the players should be embarrassed. Ridiculous errors to see from professional players, let alone Manchester United players. Too many of them just aren’t good enough, due to lack of talent, lack of spirit, or both.

Judas said:

We should win the EL, but I can't pretend to believe we will. I hope to be proved wrong, because on paper we must be winning it.

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Ole said Granada will be a tough test... the confidence is mesmerising.

Swearing Budgie said:

Darren Fletcher will sort this all out. No worries.

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He's going into midfield?

Probably a blessing in disguise but I do not get coverage of FA Cup and it sounds like we were garbage today.

garbage day!

big rons sovereign said:

Game was lost when the teams were announced.

Matic, VDB, martial. Absolute dogshit.

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And yet it was Maguire/Fred for the first goal, Fred,Matic and Lindelof for the second and Mctominay that settled it for the third. VDB’s dummy set up our goal and wait for it Ole’s substitutions to take of Pogba and allowing Bruno to play with a wonderfully skillful and creative pivot of Fred and Mctominay when we chasing the game....

OhGee said:

And yet it was Maguire/Fred for the first goal, Fred,Matic and Lindelof for the second and Mctominay that settled it for the third. VDB’s dummy set up our goal and wait for it Ole’s substitutions to take of Pogba and allowing Bruno to play with a wonderfully skillful and creative pivot of Fred and Mctominay when we chasing the game....

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Pogba might have been better coming on. Think he was gassed when he took him off. He cannot seem to see that Fred and McTominay offer nothing creatively, unless Scott scores one of his goals.

Very poor today; I think we were all expecting much better in a quarter-final. Leicester fully deserved the win; we were lacking energy and enthusiasm, and you can't win cup ties with a bad attitude. It was sloppy and everything was far too slow. Leicester's first goal summed up our performance.

A chance of a trophy gone; we need to go all the way in the Europa League.