With its out-of-form captain on the bench, United scored four goals in a sparkling first-half display and overwhelmed champion Leicester 4-1 in the English Premier League on Saturday.
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Goals from Chris Smalling, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba’s first for the club gave the hosts a 4-0 half-time lead before Demarai Gray scored spectacular consolation for the reigning Premier League champions.
Finally, in Tony Pulis’ 1,000th game as manager, a late goal from Salomon Rondon earned his West Brom team a 1-1 draw at his former club Stoke.
“This is a very good lesson for us because when you concede a goal, it’s important to maintain your composure, stay calm because sooner or later we can score”, Ranieri said.
“We have a lot of big players and a lot of players in my situation as well who are not getting the minutes they probably thought they deserved to get”.
Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney’s place in the starting line-up is not a cast iron certainty, said club manager Jose Mourinho on Friday.
Mourinho said: “I think the last thing that the team achieve is consistency”.
“It’s not possible to concede three goals off corners, that means you are not concentrating”. A major shadow of doubt, however, is over the participation of Red Devils talisman Wayne Rooney, who had a flop show during England’s match against Slovakia in the World Cup 2018 qualifiers earlier this month. When the team played not so well, he didn’t play so well.
‘It was a good performance, the intensity of our pressure, our counter-attacks, the way we reached when we lost the ball.
Manager Claudio Ranieri will quickly turn his focus to Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Porto, saying: “I have to analyse this odd match because we start very well”.
The Premier League match between Manchester United and Leicester City will be broadcast live on NBCSN. He is my man, I trust him completely.
Leicester, meanwhile, are stuck in the bottom half after a third away defeat on the spin – the first time that has happened since December 2014 – and have already equalled their tally of losses from last season’s title-winning campaign. “Today was about the result, the performance, the happiness of the fans”, Mourinho said.
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“The manager has been doing some work with me off the left and right so I think he’s trying to improve me in those areas”.
