Manchester United in crisis: explaining the moment Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Red Devils face

If Manchester United wanted to be taken seriously as a title contender, they had to come to King Power Stadium and win.

Not only did they lose, they capitulated, producing one of their worst performances of the season so far in what was their first away loss in the Premier League since January 2020.

This, then, was not the beginning of a crucial three-week period that coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was desperately looking for.

Cristiano Ronaldo burst straight into the tunnel full time, and who can blame him? He did not return to United to play abject exhibitions like this one.

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Given Leicester’s form, this was, on paper at least, the easiest encounter in United’s streak of six challenging games.

However, after their next league rival Liverpool put on a five-star display at Watford earlier that day, United collapsed against Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Solskjaer’s team could have used this encounter to make a positive statement about their title credentials, but based on their performance on Saturday afternoon, they have no hope of challenging players like Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea for first place this time. season.

Solskjaer looked stone-faced as Patson Daka scored Leicester’s fourth goal in injury time and couldn’t really have any complaints about the final score. Leicester deserved his victory; 4-2 did not flatter them.

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Had it not been for David de Gea’s outstanding heroics in goal, the Foxes would have been out of sight before the clock struck 80 minutes.

United were poor from front to back and again relied on individual brilliance to stay in the game.

They were the masters of their own downfall, with constant mistakes that presented their hosts with opportunity after opportunity.

Two of the home’s goals came from set pieces, a common problem for Solskjaer’s side, and the first came from a terrible attempt to play from behind by the carefree Harry Maguire.

Arguably, the Manchester United captain shouldn’t have been on the pitch. He looked rusty after being kicked out of a calf injury with just a full training session under his belt, and it showed.

“It was my decision to play Harry, he has worked very hard in rehab with physical therapists and seemed ready not to feel any side effects,” Solskjaer explained after the game. “He is a huge player for us, the captain, the leader, we wanted to bring him back as soon as possible because he has been very influential in our game. He got better and better throughout the game, with the ball, the game was waning.” and flowing “.

Maguire put the ball out of play in the first minute and set the tone for his sloppy performance. Mohamed Salah must be licking his lips at the prospect of facing this bottom line in just over a week!

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United had trouble dealing with the Leicester press, so the way they plan to deal with Europe’s fittest striker should keep Solskjaer out of sleep this week.

Very often in recent weeks, the Norwegian has spoken of the lack of cruelty of his attackers, but they do not move as a unit that has a coherent plan.

Jadon Sancho fell silent again, Ronaldo couldn’t even smell the goal and United’s draw came from a moment of brilliance from Mason Greenwood.

And that’s the heart of the problem.

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United don’t just rely on De Gea’s excellent shot-stopping skills to make up for his defensive flaws; they also count on Greenwood, Ronaldo, Rashford and others to knock out goal-of-the-season contenders on a regular basis for points.

There needs to be a clear, coherent and functional plan, but, for the moment, there seems to be no structure at all, as underscored by his current two-win streak in the last seven outings.

They are stuck in a rut and with Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham coming in, it’s hard to see how they’re going to get out of it.