Man Utd (again) fail at fundamentals: Can Moises Caicedo rescue this error-ridden team?
COMMENT:
Manchester United. High noon at the King Power stadium. That wasn't a performance from a title winner. Not even a contender. Instead, it encapsulated why
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team will continue to fall short in the games that matter...
It's simple. Easy. The basics of the game. These United players cannot keep the ball. They have the ability. The technique. But whether it be natural or coached, the
will just isn't there.
Going into Saturday's 2-2 draw,
Nemanja Matic nailed it right. Without the fans. Without that crack in the atmosphere. These half-paced, bounce games are blending one into the other, "They all look like carbon copies of each other resembling training sessions with no fans in the stadiums," and Saturday was no different. Barely the competitive edge of a modern day Community Shield kickabout (the days of Keegan and Bremner now long gone), United twice had the lead - and twice,
inevitably, gave it up.
And we say
inevitably, because with their carelessness in possession it was always going to happen. These aren't players whom aggressively, ruthlessly protect the ball. There's no
Mark Hughes in this line-up. Nor
Roy Keane or Eric Cantona. As great as they were with a football, they were also nasty, nasty sods when it came to holding onto the thing. They weren't pretty like the great
Barcelona or
Juventus teams of their day. But they still managed to treasure and protect the ball when in possession. And when they did lose it, it rarely happened in their defensive third.
But this United team? They lose possession so often and in such dangerous areas that it's not even pored over by pundits as a mistake. It's just the stuff of the modern day
Manchester United player. And it happened again at Leicester on Saturday.
This time it was
Bruno Fernandes at fault. With United a goal up and close to halftime, Fernandes tried - halfheartedly - to nutmeg Wilf Ndidi on the edge of his own penalty area. It was the stuff of
Paul Pogba at his worst. That the focus in the aftermath was on
Scott McTominay and
Eric Bailly for failing -
apparently - to close down
Harvey Barnes before he fired home tells you everything about the expectations around this United team.
Pogba, of course, also had his moment. Off the bench in the second-half. Again with United leading. The Frenchman, with his fresh legs, saw
Ayoze Perez free inside United's penalty area. But rather than dart goal-side of the Spaniard to at least give him some trouble with his cross, Pogba lifted his arm, pointed to no-one and kept jogging on the spot. Perez's low dart would be scrambled home by
Jamie Vardy via
Axel Tuanzebe for the host's second equaliser of the day. Pogba wasn't being lazy with his actions. It wasn't a show of poor attitude. He just doesn't have it in him. The natural reaction to get back goal-side of a loose man just isn't there.......................................................................
https://www.tribalfootball.com/arti...caicedo-rescue-this-error-ridden-team-4352896
