Manchester United 2 Leicester City 1: Ticket prices and terrible decisions
Two Premier League teams, one enduring their worst ever home record versus a side with no clean sheets in 19 games except make it the FA Cup.
Despite this, Leicester had won only once at Old Trafford in the last 20 years and that day, we had no fans at all there. This tie had ‘thriller for the neutrals’ written all over it. Ahem.
Oh, and you know, some small narrative about a former legend coming back to face his old club that he’s also managed this year to knock his current side out of the other domestic cup.
Ah, the magic ripoff of the Cup. The initial allocation for Leicester City fans was halved after a lot of fans rightly decided that £52, or more, to see us potentially lose at Old Trafford for the third time this season.
For a game airing on terrestrial television on a Friday night, it’s a disgrace. It meant our biggest fan groups didn’t have a single member at the game, a first in eleven years. Sadly not called out by the commentators or pundits.
Looking at the stands and the 73,000 attendance, it didn’t seem to impact the wider attendance either. United always boosted by the tourism aspect and the unwavering interest in their club despite their ongoing decline.
The same club who have threatened ticket hikes again for next year because they’re battling PSR or some excuse. Their billionaire owners are willing to punish loyal fans instead of owning up to their long run of overspending on bang average players. Similar but not.
Despite the pressure of us needing to focus on the Premier League, Ruud Van Nistelrooy didn’t weaken the squad too much. Rests were only granted for the older players, Jamie Vardy and Jannik Vestergaard, and a break for Victor Kristiansen too.
No such luck for James Justin, Woyo Coulibaly left on the bench wondering what he’s joined for. Though when he did come on, it was a painful watch.
Patson Daka, Caleb Okoli and Luke Thomas all got starts, but otherwise it was the side we’ve been lining up regularly. Wilfred Ndidi is finally back from injury and took Captaincy duties while Manchester United opted to debut their new £20m signing, Patrick Dorgu.
The measure of improvement following the Everton debacle was to not concede in ten or less seconds. Being competitive and looking like we might actually score was this week’s great hope.
So with a quarter of the game gone, who had the only shot on target being a Leicester City one? Chalk that off on your bingo card and hold onto your pen because we managed three shots in forty-five minutes.
There wasn’t a lot else of anything going on in the first forty minutes, neutrals dozing off or considering switching to Gone Girl on the other channel.
United looked drab and the home crowd had been growing restless, the game mostly flat. Mads Hermansen had come closest to helping them out, almost losing a ball he tried to catch, but the Foxes hadn’t been under any real pressure.
Leicester capitalised on this to take the lead close to the half-time whistle. It was a goal made by Bilal El Khannouss and some clever footwork. He delivered the ball to the wandering Ndidi, who’d travelled about ten yards forward largely unchallenged, and Bobby De Cordova-Reid had made a nuisance of himself to get into the right spot to gently head into the back of the net.
Cue a confused looking Harry Maguire and goalkeeper Onana. Cue the Old Trafford boos at half time. Suddenly, the neutrals were drawn right back in. And Leicester fans were begging to stop the count, end the game. We all knew what was coming. Again.
Leicester are not for the defensive purists
This is a Leicester team who don’t go ahead often, and they definitely can’t be trusted to hold on when they do. Clean sheets are becoming a mythical topic between Foxes fans. We might have more chance of seeing a unicorn at this rate.
It’s so much more painful because Manchester United are abysmal at Old Trafford. As a 90s kid, it used to be a fortress you knew you’d never see your team win at; nowadays it’s become a good bet for an away win. The fact that Leicester City have lost there three times this season is shocking. And United haven’t really had to do that much to win in any of those three games.
It’s a good reminder of why going out of the cup is no real concern. We’ve got much bigger issues to try and address and the squad depth and our options are so frustrating. But it’s another blow to a squad with fragile morale.
Having been fairly untested throughout the first half, it made sense for the home side to put Garnacho into the mix, pace and trickery and down our weaker, right flank. Our back line hadn't looked terrible prior to this and United had had no shots on target until they equalised in the 68th minute. All on brand for LCFC of course.
United started asking questions and looking more threatening with Garnacho pulling the strings and the ever annoying Bruno Fernandes. Caleb Okoli had a big moment, clearing one off the line and celebrating it with pleasing passion. For a player we were told was possibly leaving and who may or may not have had a dressing room bust up, it was good to see him enjoy that.
We were lacking grit outside of that though and the equaliser was a frustrating one to concede. A pinball moment between our defenders, Faes now sporting the Captain’s armband bizarrely, left unsure where the ball was going. Straight to Zirkzee’s feet for him to tap home, of course. The flow of momentum was only going one way after that.
With extra time, and possibly penalties, looming, it wasn’t a pretty prospect. The neutrals had probably already checked out and even most of our fans didn’t fancy dragging it out. However, to lose to a last ditch goal that was incredibly offside is excruciating. It being headed in by he of the large head and former Fox, Harry Maguire more so. It was a rare time where Hermansen had been entirely wrongfooted, never getting anywhere near it.
The linesman was our only hope without the presence of VAR and despite being level with the four United players in offside positions, he couldn’t spot it.
Ruud van Nistelrooy hasn’t always had the perfect answer to questions from fans and the media this season. But he was great in the post-match press conference. When the journalist joked about Fergie time, he was very clear:
“We didn’t lose in Fergie time, we lost in offside time.”
In truth, neither team had done enough to deserve to win the match in normal time but this was such a disappointing way to be knocked out, even if the prospect of having to endure another 30 minutes of that game was like torture.
Where we’d looked sharper in the opening half, United engaged their professional mode and woke up in the second half.
Garnacho had the better of Justin and De Cordova-Reid at all times and even swapping DCR for Kasey McAteer didn’t stop the flow of traffic. The holders of the FA Cup edged us out in what is a generally forgettable game.
An Ndidi boost but persistent squad gaps
The Foxes had been able to take the game at their speed in the first half, but hadn’t been able to extend the lead. Leaving the second half to be battled with fine margins, you don’t trust us at just 1-0 up, but it was important to get Ndidi a good run out.
With how often Manchester United turned over possession and just did silly things in the first half, Maguire crossing across field to completely miss his team mate and put it out for a throw in, Leicester City had the midfield battle locked down. Ndidi and Bilal El Khannouss had been running the show there and helping us get forward.
While Boubakary Soumare has stepped up, we’ve felt the absence of Ndidi in the last couple of weeks. His ability to break up play, put a foot in and some of the offensive moves he can make, building on last year.
Perhaps we didn’t appreciate how good Ndidi was until he came off at Old Trafford. The drop in our performance once he was substituted for Harry Winks was noticeable, his current decline is concerning. But after that first half, we all started to think having Ndidi and Hermansen back could be the boost we need in the league. We looked more energised and productive with him in the side.
While we generally dropped a level again in the second half, the substitutes didn’t really aid things. Winks should have been more than capable of replacing Ndidi and putting in some more effort.
Some of us had forgotten Patson Daka was still on the pitch, such was how middling the game had become, but having our only striker go off injured isn’t ideal. No outright striker on the bench with Vardy left at home and despite Jake Evans making the squad so Facundo Buonanotte took over duties up front. Dare we mention Tom Cannon?
We did get a glimpse of Coulibaly in the second half, taking over at left-back for Thomas. While we anticipated having signed him to compete with Justin, it would be helpful if he could have some versatility.
It wasn’t an overly inspirational first outing there. But there’ll be another four and a half years of him though so there’s plenty of time to improve - or embark on a Soumare, Vestergaard arc in twelve to eighteen months time.
Not giving the people what they want
There’s several perils of being a Leicester fan, having hope continually extinguished in ridiculous ways and trying to get ahead of the curve with a match report. The two halves of Bobby De Cordova-Reid was also akin to the two halves of Leicester we saw.
After the first half, putting some praise onto De Cordova-Reid seemed fair. He’d got the goal, he’d been helping out defensively. Then came the second half where he was immediately second best to half-time substitute Garnacho, leaving Ruud no choice but to put McAteer on midway through.
It’s not Bobby’s fault his inclusion in our team doesn’t inspire excitement. Or that we offered him a three-year deal. He’s the current preferred body to sit in front of Justin while we continue to lament Fatawu’s absence. It makes sense and it has given us some goals.
Nothing about it suggests it’ll save us from relegation though. What people really wanted last night was something to enjoy, anything. Jeremy Monga making the bench generated a slight buzz pre-match, but the odds of seeing him evaporated quickly once United got level.
We may as well have diverted to some kids at that point, we never looked like we’d hold them off and stop the loss. At some people you may as well just give the people what they want.
This latest loss at Old Traffic didn’t particularly seem to stoke any more anger, most fans seemed to have a more depressing sense of acceptance and numbness in response. Even the goal we scored didn’t generate as much excitement as it should.
It’s Arsenal next, and the focus is on whether the rumoured protest pre-match happens and whether it makes any impact.
