Erik ten Hag feels Manchester United were “lucky” to have led at the break against Leicester City
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag feels the Red Devils were “lucky” to go into the break with a one-goal advantage against Leicester City.
The Foxes visited Old Trafford on Sunday (19 February) in the Premier League. Brendan Rodgers’ team were on top of us for most of the opening 45 minutes. However, Marcus Rashford’s goal in the 25th minute gave us the lead.
After a mistake from the King Power Stadium side’s defender Wout Faes, the England international got in behind and beat Danny Ward one-on-one.
The hard work continues game after game 🔴 pic.twitter.com/savANSSai4
— David de Gea (@D_DeGea) February 19, 2023
However, apart from the 25-year-old’s chance, Leicester were constantly pressuring our defence. They had a few decent opportunities, but David de Gea was on hand to stop them.
Kelechi Iheanacho had the Foxes’ best opportunity before the break. His header was clean and on target, but United’s shot-stopper clawed it out before it went into the back of the net.
Speaking after the win via Manchester Evening News, Ten Hag was not too pleased with the way the Red Devils went about their business in the first half. The Dutch manager felt the team were “rubbish” for most of the proceedings.
“I was really unhappy by our performance. And it was only down to David de Gea that we don’t concede a goal. So we were really lucky at half-time that we were 1-0 up. Of course, a great pass by Bruno, a great finish by Rashy. But for the rest was rubbish.”
Subsequently, Ten Hag changed the system up a bit and brought on Jadon Sancho for the start of the second half. The Old Trafford side looked much more in control thereafter.
Subsequently, Rashford got his brace before the former Borussia Dortmund star scored United’s third of the evening. The 22-year-old was deployed in the number 10 position, with Bruno Fernandes out on the right.
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In the end, even though the Red Devils struggled to get going at the start, we managed to get the result. Hopefully, the result will give Ten Hag an idea of whom to start against Barcelona in our crunch second-leg fixture against Barcelona in the Europa League.