Key events
46 min Leicester kick off and enjoy some possession, wch ends with a poor long ball.
Amorim seems to have responded with two moves. One is to send United out early, to wallow in their embarrassment. The other is to replace Patrick Dorgu with Alejandro Garnacho, so presumably Amad is going to right wing-back.
According to expected goals, the scoreline doesn’t lie. Leicester have exactly 1, United 0.04.
Both teams have played 274 passes. But in terms of shots on target, it’s 3-0 to Leicester, who have been more purposeful than United.
This fixture has now been played two and a half times this season, and the aggregate score is 9-2 to Ruud van Nistelrooy. He knew how to get United to win home games; Ruben Amorim seems to have forgotten already.
“I’m enjoying the MBM so far!” says Matthew Turner, sportingly. “In Lee Dixon’s defence, the modern world is kind of rubbish. I’m happy to elaborate if you have a few minutes.”
HALF-TIME United 0-1 Leicester
Exit Amorim, pursued by some boos.
Ugarte lost the ball in a dangerous area, El Khannouss played a neat square cross or cut-back, and all Nidid had to do was side-foot the ball into the net. He didn’t manage it, but the ball popped up and De Cordova-Reid reacted first to nod it in. “No one goes with him,” says Dixon. That’s the sixth time in seven home games that United have gone 1-0 down.
GOAL! Man United 0-1 Leicester (De Cordova-Reid 42)
Here they go.
40 min Yoro sends a long ball forward, looking for Hojlund, who is about ten yards behind where the ball lands.
39 min James Justin goes storming up the field, but, you’ve guessed it, nothing comes of it.
36 min Mads Hermansen almost scores an own goal! He fumbles Amad’s corner, under pressure from Maguire, and almost drops it over the line.
36 min Leny Yoro steps out of defence, Martinez-style, and wins the ball. He pokes it forward to Mainoo … who pokes it back again. The crowd groan. But then United do get forward and after some patient passing they win a corner.
34 min We interrupt this non-event to bring you an email. “What’s a big club?” asks Tim Stappard. “Sporting could win the league especially if beat Porto tonight and are in the champs league knock-out stages, which is better than Utd have done for a while. So Sporting is a big club and anyone who says they aren’t have little knowledge if European football.
“Anyway I’m a Utd fan and the board are responsible for forcing him to leave when he didn’t ideally want to, causing problems everywhere.” He could have said no!
33 min United counter and Bruno Fernandes plays a peach of a pass, out to Amad on the right. He finds Kobbie Mainoo, who can’t sort his feet out.
31 min The corner is a good one and United show how shaky they are against set-pieces.
30 min United, who are contractually required to score no goals in the first half, are now two-thirds of the way there. And they’ve just conceded a corner, thanks to a fine cross from Luke Thomas.
29 min Ndidi slides into Mazraoui and hears the whistle, much to his indignation.
28 min It feels as if Leicester have a goal in them and it could well be made by Jordan Ayew, who has looked the man most likely to make something happen (apart from Dorgu). But they could do with keeping the ball better.
26 min Bobby De Cordova-Reid gets into the box down the right and hits a cross-or-shot over the bar.
24 min Another United free kick. Fernandes haas another trick up his sleeve, trying to release Hojlund, whose considerable speed is not quite enough to make it work.
23 min United are now encamped in Leicester’s half for the first time. The cameras find Ruben Amorim throwing up his hands in horror at something or other.
21 min Amad and Fernandes stand over the ball, and then spring a surprise – Fernandes passes sideways, Amad shoots… but a deflection takes the ball way over the bar. From the resulting corner, the ball comes loose and Amad back-heels to Dorgu, who shoots with his right (and weaker) foot – also over the top, but more promising.
19 min Hojlund does well to hold the ball up and feed Amad on the right. He dances inside and then plays a reverse pass to Dorgu, who wins a free kick.
17 min Dorgu, the only bright spot for United so far, suddenly finds himself in acres on the right, but can’t use the time he has to pass to a team-mate. United do get a corner, which Amad messes up.
15 min “They’re very comfortable at the moment, Leicester,” says Lee Dixon. He has now spent 15 minutes sounding like that guy in the pub who is unimpressed with everything about the modern world.
14 min The kick doesn’t reach the heads waiting for it, and now it’s Leicester’s turn to struggle in the face of the press. United win the ball but can’t do much with it.
13 min Free kick to Leicester, 40 yards out.
12 min The Leicester press pens United into their own third – not the hardest thing to do these days. Dalot tries to escape with a Rooney-style switch but he just gives the ball away.
9 min United get a jolt of life from Dorgu, who barrels into the box. Nothing comes of it, but you can see why Amorim has thrown him straight in.
8 min Like Ndidi, Luke Thomas has started brightly for Leicester. They look as if they’ve forgotten all about that week in November when they leaked eight goals here.
6 min A shot! Jordan Ayew hits a would-be screamer and it’s on target, but Andre Onana catches it easily enough. Daka had done well, out-sprinting Harry Maguire and then laying it off.
5 min Manuel Ugarte nicks the ball in the inside-right channel .. only to give it away again. Wilfred Ndidi, back from injury, has already added some bite to Leicester’s midfield.
4 min Leicester’s turn to ping it around at the back. They do better and get forward down the right, with Patson Daka popping up on the wing, but United push them back in the end.
2 min United give away a free kick on their right. The offender is the new boy Patrick Dorgu, who is at right wing-back, not left as expected. Diogo Dalot stays on the other side for now.
1 min Play gets under way with a familiar sight: United passing it sideways at the back.
Ruud van Nistelrooy strides along the touchline with the same confidence he showed last time he did it (which was against Leicester). The Bobby Charlton stand gives him a warm hand.
“Evening Tim,” says Gary J Byrne. “Will Ruud van Nistelrooy have a case of the Steve Bruces on his return to Old Trafford?”
“Sorry, and I am almost certainly wrong,” says Brendan Large, “but… how does Martinez deserve a shirt for missing the rest of the season? How many full seasons has he played… how many games in a row. He has been good but has struggled to be on the pitch.
“Might this be the club searching for #likes or #engagement or #anythingpositivethatcanbeconnectedtotheclub???”
An email from Cleveland, Ohio. “I enjoy your newsletter,” says Rob Hisnay. “You are one of the few who writes the truth about Ruben Amoron. The downfall of MUFC continues.” Thanks! Though that word ending seems a little harsh.
In case anyone’s wondering what the hell Rob is referring to, it’s a Substack site called United Writing which I founded in 2021 with Rob Smyth. And yes, it may occasionally have expressed doubt about Amorim’s preferred formation.
A nice touch from the United players, giving a shout-out to Lisandro Martinez, who will miss the rest of the season with a cruciate-ligament injury.
Ruben Amorim is asked if this competition is a priority. “The main goal,” he says, “is to win the Premier League.” Has he looked at the table recently?
Ruud also talked about Jeremy Monga, the 15-year-old he has on the bench. “He went up to the Under-18s, did well, went up to the Under-21s and did well there too.” They grow up so fast.
The game is on ITV in Britain and Ruud van Nistelrooy is chatting to the pundits. Asked if it feels odd to be at Old Trafford as the visiting manager, he reveals that he went into the home dressing-room by mistake. When he reached the away one, he didn’t much like it. “It’s tiny! And not comfortable. So they got that right.”
“Is the United job too big for Amorim?” wonders Gerry Scott. “I can understand that it is hard to turn a failing club around and even that things might get worse before they get better. His approach seems to have just torpedoed the team however, with no sense as to when it ever might improve. He just seems unready for the demands of managing at such a big team.” He certainly seems to have been surprised by the pace and relentlessness of the Premier League. But to be fair, he has done all right in the cups – seeing off Arsenal in the third round, winning all four of his games in the Europa League so far, and losing only to Spurs in the Carabao, when he went overboard with the rotation.
Correction! Jake Evans, whose selection was announced by Ruud van Nistelrooy yesterday, is not on the team sheet after all. So, just the one GCSE student for Leicester – Monga, the 15-year-old left-winger. Still, it’s quite something. At the risk of making you feel old, I am obliged to report that Monga was born in July 2009.
Teams in full: Leicester
Leicester (4-2-3-1) Hermansen; Justin, Faes, Okoli, Thomas; Ndidi, Soumaré; Ayew, El Khanouss, De Cordova-Reid; Daka.
Subs: Stolarczyk, Coulibaly, Coady, Skipp, Winks, Mavididi, Buonanotte, McAteer, Monga.
Teams in full: United
Man United (3-4-2-1) Onana; Mazraoui, Maguire, Yoro; Dalot, Ugarte, Fernandes, Dorgu; Amad, Mainoo; Højlund.
Subs: Graczyk, Heaven, Lindelof, De Ligt, Collyer, Casemiro, Eriksen, Garnacho, Zirkzee.
Teams in brief: no Vardy!
The bad news for Leicester fans is that the venerable Jamie Vardy – at 38, the same age as Dorgu and Heaven put together – is not on the team sheet. The good news is that Ruud van Nistelrooy has a striker on the bench who is only 16: Jake Evans. And he’s not the youngest player in the squad, either. Also among the subs is Jeremy Monga, a left-winger who is 15. This is not a typo.
Teams in brief: Dorgu starts for United
United made only one senior-ish signing in the transfer window – the 20-year-old wing-back Patrick Dorgu, from Lecce. Ruben Amorim decides to throw him in at the deep end. Another new recruit, the 18-year-old centre-back Ayden Heaven from Arsenal, is on the bench. The kid is a headline waiting to happen.
Pre-match reading
Michael Butler has been taking a close look at how these two managers have fared since they took over. Even the stattos agree: both teams have got worse.
Preamble
Evening everyone and welcome to live coverage of the fourth round of the FA Cup. First up is the Ruud van Nistelrooy derby, or should that be Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans?
On paper, this is a big game: Man United, the holders of the FA Cup and the winners 12 times before that, entertaining Leicester, who won the cup in 2021. On form, it’s not so hot, as both these clubs have fallen on lean times. Leicester, 18th in the Premier League, may well be heading for relegation, and United, who are 13th, haven’t been much better – at least since Van Nistelrooy left them in November, after being personally ushered towards the exit by Ruben Amorim.
This is the third meeting between the sides at Old Trafford this season, and in the first two Ruud was triumphant. As United’s acting manager, he steered his old team to two decisive wins – 5-2 in the Carabao Cup and 3-0 in the league. How Amorim could do with those scorelines now.
Leicester were so impressed with their back-to-back hidings that they hired Ruud to rescue them from the drop. That hasn’t gone so well… in fact, both clubs have newish bosses who appear to have made them worse. It’s the new-manager slump!
Kick-off is at 8pm and I’ll see you soon with the teams.