Jadon Sancho strike keeps Man Utd on upward curve
HOT STREAK: Manchester United's Jadon Sancho scored the only goal of the game.
Erik ten Hag’s brave new Manchester United era continued, courtesy of Jadon Sancho, at Leicester although the closing of the transfer window, an hour or so after the final whistle, was the evening’s major news.
Cristiano Ronaldo, brought on as a late substitute, almost scored a spectacular late goal with a bicycle kick that flew just wide as his hopes of a summer move away from United officially came to an end.
How Ten Hag fits the iconic striker or, for that matter, new arrival Antony, who could be involved against Arsenal on Sunday, into his line-up remains to be seen.
But at least the new manager now wrestles with such issues on the back of three successive victories, rather than mired in the sort of crisis that is engulfing Leicester.
If Brendan Rodgers’ team had usurped United as the most fragile in the Premier League currently, the last thing they could afford was to concede first — which is precisely what they did.
After an uneventful 22 minutes, a poor clearance from keeper Danny Ward was returned into the Leicester half by a precise Diogo Dalot pass and the home defence instantly looked disorganised.
Bruno Fernandes had more space than he needed down United’s right flank and switched the ball inside with a crisp pass to Marcus Rashford who, in turn, slipped along the perfect pass for Sancho.
The winger confidently rounded a flailing Ward and rolled the ball into the open net — a stunning counter-attacking goal but one which showed how dramatically Rodgers’ side has slumped this season.
Certainly, the expression on the face of the City manager as he contemplated the opening goal spoke of a man, and a club, mired in something of an existential crisis currently.
The days when United were in that same sort of fragile mind-set — in other words, the opening two games of the season and those demoralising defeats to Brighton and Brentford — have quickly been forgotten.
After wins over Liverpool and Southampton, Ten Hag named an unchanged starting line-up for a third straight game, which meant his bench included new signing Casemiro and Ronaldo.
That pair, each with five Champions League winner’s medals, certainly add know-how, not to mention a fair amount of stardust, to the United bench although it was hard to critique anything about ten Hag’s starting XI at the King Power.
Casemiro will, presumably, be a replacement for Scott McTominay in the not too distant future but the Scottish international is certainly making it hard for ten Hag to drop him at the moment and has formed a strong pairing with Christian Eriksen in United’s midfield.
All that said, it was hard to imagine weaker opposition for United to have faced than Leicester, still reeling from their disastrous transfer window and the recent departure of Wesley Fofana, as they laboured to gain a foothold.
Not until the 37th minute, when Harvey Barnes sent a decent long shot curling just wide of David de Gea’s goal, did the hosts carve out anything resembling a chance.
It was not hard to see how Leicester had managed to collect just one point from their opening four games and equally difficult to envisage how Rodgers was going to improve matters, either on the night or longer term.
United, for their part, did not need to do much to keep control of the game and, while Eriksen threatened with a couple of long shots and Sancho had an effort blocked from a Rashford pull-back, they should have been able to create more opportunities.
But the boos from the home supporters that greeted the half-time whistle summed up the malaise around what has traditionally been, in recent seasons, one of the most intimidating venues in the Premier League.
To their credit, it took Leicester just five minutes of the second half to finally give their fans something to cheer about as Kieran Dewsbury-Hall broke forward and was hauled down by Lisandro Martinez.
James Maddison took the free-kick, nearly 30 yards out, and was only denied by a flying de Gea who deflected the ball away as it appeared destined for the top corner.
The shot energised the crowd, and Dewsbury-Hall who, moments later, showed persistence to beat the United defence and cross towards the far post where the ball was fractionally too high for Barnes.
United did not help their cause by conceding a series of cheap free-kicks as Ten Hag turned to his bench and Casemiro, a clear indication of United’s desire to shore up their midfield.
The Brazilian soon gave the ball away, to James Maddison, in a potentially costly position with McTominay compounding the error by making a poor foul on the edge of his area.
It gave Maddison a perfect 22-yard look at de Gea’s goal although the Leicester star could only plant his free-kick directly into the wall, with Ten Hag responding again, this time by throwing on Ronaldo.
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