One bewildering moment vs Newcastle epitomised a burning issue at Manchester United

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Manchester United lost again, this time crashing out of the Carabao Cup against Newcastle.

Manchester United will not be retaining their Carabao Cup title. In a world that now seems lightyears away from that victory – Erik ten Hag is severely struggling.

The issue? No one is entirely sure and can’t necessarily be pinpointed to exactly one thing. It’s an accumulation of simply rotten independent issues.

One of these was on show for all to see last night, and it’s been a burning issue for some time.

Hannibal Mejbri moment of madness vs Newcastle

Hannibal Mejbri was his usual fiery self against Newcastle, and was booked 17 minutes into the first half – and rightly so.

Gary Neville, on commentary for Sky Sports, said: “He had to be booked. It was never there. A needless booking, he’s just barged into him well after the ball has gone.”

Just four minutes later Hannibal made another reckless challenge, which, luckily for the Tunisian, he didn’t go into the book for.

But it should not even have got to this stage.

Casemiro to blame

Right when Hannibal obtained the first booking, absolutely no United player, not even the captain – Casemiro, went over to have a word to cool it.

The sorry thing is, it’s like the blind leading the blind. Casemiro is just as hot-headed as Hannibal is, so evidently didn’t see a problem.

United got lucky. This on another day, would have resulted in a red card. It shows one clear problem at United.

There are no leaders at Manchester United

Speaking on the incident on the Talk of the Devils podcast, Andy Mitten gave his thoughts.

“When I saw Hannibal get his booking, I had a look around him and thought, ‘Where are the leaders in this team?'”

He’s absolutely right. Manchester United have no leaders on the pitch whatsoever.

A real leader would have grabbed the young lad Hannibal and essentially told him to pack it in. Instead, everyone looked on, and eventually nearly paid the price.

This has been an issue for a while, not one player is able to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. It’s having severe consequences – and we only see things getting worse.