Recap
Leicester City fell by a score of 3-0 against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday morning. A Bruno Fernandes strike and a Victor Kristiansen own-goal gave the hosts an insurmountable advantage at the break. The Foxes couldn’t find a way back into the match and Alejandro Garnacho added a fine curling effort to provide the final margin.
What can I say about that match? What do you want me to say? The lineup didn’t work, the shape didn’t work, the adjustments didn’t work, the substitutions didn’t work…believe it or not, I could go on. But I don’t want to.
There were bright spots. The defence was breached by two shots from outside the area and an own goal, so we weren’t overrun. Fatawu and Buonanotte ran hard but often into cul-de-sacs. We just literally never looked like scoring. We lost individual battles, but more to the point, we lost every team battle. Every. Last. One.
So, I really don’t know what to add. It was hard to watch.
The defeat leaves us on 10 points from 11 matches. We remain 15th on the table, but the gap narrowed this weekend as every club now has at least one victory. After the international break, we host Chelsea on 23rd and then close out our November schedule with a visit to Brentford on the 30th.
3 Takeaways
- This is the sort of match that costs managers their job.
- We remain far too heavily reliant on Jamie Vardy to provide attacking impetus. Maybe when Patson Daka returns he’ll help.
- I still sense this team is better than what we’ve seen. I’ll leave it up to you to determine what this means.
I’m not sure “there for the taking” is accurate. They played well and we didn’t.
Leicester City: Mads Hermansen, James Justin (Kasey McAteer 84′), Wout Faes, Jannik Vestergaard, Victor Kristiansen, Boubakary Soumare, Wilfred Ndidi (Bilal El Khannouss 70′), Harry Winks (C), Abdul Fatawu, Facundo Buonanotte, Jordan Ayew (Odsonne Edouard 88′)
Manchester United: André Onana, Lisandro Martínez, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, Diogo Dalot, Bruno Fernandes, Manuel Ugarte, Casemiro, Rasmus Højlund, Marcus Rashford, Amad
Key Moments and Notes
1’- Obviously, the big news is that Jamie Vardy is unable to participate due to a back injury. Interestingly, Buonanotte is lining up on the right, meaning Fatawu is on the left. That’s worth watching.
7’- The United press isn’t aggressive, but it’s working. The Foxes have given the ball away under little pressure several times.
16’- The Foxes win their first corner. It’s poor, but it’s really the first sign of life from the City attack.
17’- GOAL! Absolutely shambolic. Kristiansen puts the ball out for a throw to break up a United counter. The Red Devils see the defence napping and take the throw quickly. Fernandes plays a one-two with Amad, finds himself unmarked on the edge of the area, and beats Hermansen with a low drive. Ayew was the closest defender.
25’- Fatawu spots Onana off his line and tries his luck from distance. And, by “distance,” I mean 60 meters. It goes as well as you might imagine.
27’- Half-chance for City. Ndidi runs into space behind the back line and Buonanotte plays a peach of a ball to him. It’s a difficult ball to control, but the Nigeria man’s first touch is a good one. Unfortunately, with Onana closing the gap, the second touch isn’t good and the keeper is in a position to gather.
38’- GOAL! Too easy. United move the ball far too easily in the Leicester half with players making unmarked runs all over the place. Rashford whips in a cross that Højlund misses. It runs to Fernandes, who gets his header all wrong, but it comes off Kristiansen’s thigh and into the net.
45’- Referee Peter Bankes has been loathe to blow his whistle, but Ugarte gives him little choice. The Uruguayan bowls over Buonanotte and Justin without making much effort to play the ball on either occasion.
45+2’- Close! United counter at the death and probably should have a third. Amad jinks around three defenders and blasts a shot that Hermansen saves with the tip of his toes.
HALFTIME: Manchester United 2 – 0 Leicester City
45’- The second half is underway with both sides unchanged.
48’- Casimero is unimpressed when he’s penalised for going six yards out of his way to knock Fatawu to the ground after Dalot was beaten again.
55’- Buonanotte and Fatawu are playing very hard and occasionally well. However, they’re both trying to win the match on their own. This is very hard to watch.
59’- Former Fox Jonny Evans is on along with Alejandro Garnacho. This is news because it means Dalot is off. The Foxes may find attacking down the left flank a little more difficult.
64’- Buonanotte lunges in on Martinez and it’s late. He catches the fullback with his studs and sees yellow. He’ll miss the next match against Chelsea.
70’- Bilal El Khannouss is on for Ndidi. It was a busy day for the former Genk man who did a lot well but couldn’t summon anything resembling a final touch.
79’- Absolutely nothing of interest happening on the pitch. That’s an exaggeration, but nothing remotely interesting is happening. We’re not toothless; we’ve never even heard of the concept of “teeth.”
82’- GOAL! Well, something interesting happened, but not in a good way. United play the ball out of the back. Fernandes finds Garnacho on the edge of the area and he curls an unstoppable effort into the far corner.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
84’- Justin is off and Kasey McAteer is on for him. Left it a bit late…
88’- …it could always be later. Odsonne Edouard replaces Ayew.
90’- We’ll have six minutes of time added on. That doesn’t feel like a good thing today.
90+6’- Full time. Finally.
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