Three points were required and only one was claimed by Manchester United, whose prospects of Champions League qualification are distant. Ralf Rangnick’s side are sixth, a win behind Arsenal, who have played two games fewer.
It could have been worse. With 10 minutes left Raphaël Varane got himself into a pickle, Kelechi Iheanacho burgled him and passed to James Maddison who made it 2-1. But Andre Marriner, on a VAR touchline review, deemed Iheanacho impeded Varane and it was chalked off. Yet though United rallied from here – Jadon Sancho missed a golden late chance – their campaign’s end is misfiring – just as their season before has.
“As long as it [the top four] is possible mathematically, it is possible,” said Rangnick. “We need to prepare for Everton next weekend and hopefully win that. The second half was better, we were struggling to find rhythm in the first half, possibly because of the international break. In the end we are not happy with the result but the second half was OK.”
Brendan Rodgers was, understandably, discontented with the VAR call. “Raphaël Varane has used his experience, he gets the contact and goes down. There were then opportunities for them to clear it – from Harry Maguire and the full-back –and they missed it [so] the goal did not come directly [from the incident]. We are bitterly disappointed not to get the goal – we felt we deserved to win the game.”
Rangnick wanted the last two and a half weeks since United’s previous action – being dumped out of the Champions League by Atlético Madrid - to be a “reset” for the term’s final nine games. With this missed opportunity, the German has eight left to try to somehow finish in the top four and, also, reach 64 points – 13 are needed – which would be United’s lowest ever tally in the Premier League era.
Another problem is the misfiring Marcus Rashford who, despite the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo (flu) and Edinson Cavani (injury), was not selected. “We knew this morning Cristiano could not play and decided to start Paul Pogba,” said the interim manager.
Ronaldo was the big miss, of course: in the stead of the hat-trick hero of a 3-2 win over Tottenham in the previous league outing Rangnick did a Pep Guardiola, plumping for a false No 9 in Bruno Fernandes. The Portuguese’s first act featured a puzzled look at Pogba when the latter failed to drift into the space behind Leicester he tapped the ball into. If the Frenchman can often bemuse, there was only clarity regarding Maguire and the support offered the beleaguered defender from the United fans, after he endured boos on England duty.
Rangnick’s ploy was for Fred, Anthony Elanga and Pogba to flood forward in support of Fernandes and all did, on occasion, as United surged at their visitors.
Pogba, operating almost as a second ‘ghost nine’, was present to head Luke Shaw’s ball at goal and further encouragement came when Fernandes resembled a career-striker in racing on to Fred’s threaded pass before toe-poking a shot Kasper Schmeichel did well to repel.
From this, Leicester broke quickly and Diogo Dalot and Varane just about kept Harvey Barnes at bay. Then, a Maddison-Barnes combination had the latter firing: again it was off-target, again United had been warned.
If an unwanted torpor was settling on Rangnick’s men, the way Scott McTominay took Maddison out after the interval suggested he would shake it. But this was dangerous and the midfielder was fortunate Marriner deemed it worthy of only yellow. “We had one in the season when Ayoze Pérez was sent off [at West Ham], that one was similar, the ball gets away and he has to make a challenge,” said Rodgers. “It’s the inconsistency [that frustrates].”
Ten minutes into the second half and on came Rashford, off went McTominay, and United had a natural spearhead but, now, United undid themselves. Fred broke from a Leicester corner but when passing to Fernandes, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall snatched possession and fed Maddison. He crossed and the disappointing Varane missed a header but Iheanacho did not.
Disaster for United was soon eased by an equaliser. This time Schmeichel was chief culprit – a fluffed clearance was pinged by Varane to Fred who relayed to Fernandes: he pulled the trigger, Schmeichel parried and Fred, following in, smashed home. Next, in a breathless passage, David de Gea flew to his right to save a Wesley Fofana header.
Next came Maddison’s goal-that-never-was and United then actually dominated. But to no avail.
