Leicester City playmaker James Maddison has given an honest verdict on what it was like to face Ralf Rangnick’s Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The FA Cup holders may have felt hard done by the fact they only came away from the Theatre of Dreams with one point following the 1-1 draw on Saturday.
Maddison had a goal ruled out following a VAR check after referee Andre Marriner deemed that Foxes goalscorer Kelechi Iheanacho had fouled Raphael Varane in the build-up.
But what was glaringly obvious given Maddison’s comments was that Brendan Rodgers’ side didn’t come away from Manchester feeling like they had a taxing evening’s work.
The one-time England international’s comments came across that it was more of a stroll in the park for the King Power Stadium side.
“Man United weren’t hurting us,” the Leicester man said via the Times.
“Sometimes you can almost kind of feel like you are in control even without the ball.
“They didn’t press the game that well. When we did stay calm, and we made three or four passes, we could actually get through them.”
The ease in which Maddison felt that Leicester had it against Rangnick’s men highlights the scale of the task that either Erik ten Hag or Mauricio Pochettino are going to face.
No ideas in possession and easy to cut through without the ball is a recipe for disaster and Manchester United are a worrying symbol of both at the moment.
For a flair player in the ilk of Maddison to come away from a clash at Old Trafford and feel like they were in control should be enough to call for an inquest by itself.
But this has become the new norm, teams coming to M16 and treating it like any other game just in a bigger stadium.
The fear factor is long gone and it’s going to take a long time for it to be rebuilt. But James Maddision’s comments should hurt the Manchester United players.
The problem is they probably won’t and that that says so much about the culture surrounding the modern day Manchester United.
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