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Gary Neville Slams Lack Of Man Utd Leadership For Late Leicester Goal

PJ Browne
By PJ Browne
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Chris Smalling was clearly struggling with a groin problem as Man Utd attempted to hold onto their lead against Leicester on Saturday night.

Speaking with Alan Parry on the Gary Neville Podcast after the match, Neville highlighted a serious lack of organisation in the Man Utd defence which led to Harry Maguire's late equaliser for Leicester.

Six minutes before the goal, Neville spotted that Smalling had sustained an injury. At that point, Neville believes Smalling should have started a reshuffle of the Man Utd defence. Instead, it was Phil Jones who issued the instructions.

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Curiously, as he observed on commentary during the game, Neville said that Ander Herrera rejected Phil Jones's direction.

Smalling has got to flag up as an experienced defender that he's struggling, get Lindelof into the centre and get Herrera back to fullback. It didn't happen for two or three minutes.

Then Phil Jones recognised it had happened and tried to reorganise - as I saw it, Ander Herrera looked like he actually refused to go to right-back and said to Mkhitaryan, 'You go back there'.

As injury time ticked towards its conclusion, Smalling stood on the sideline waiting to come back on after having received medical attention on the pitch.

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He would return to the game just in time to see Marc Albrighton swing a teasing cross from the left wing towards David De Gea's back post. The ball sailed over the head of the physically limited Smalling onto the foot of Maguire who directed it to the net.

Neville castigated the lack of organisation and leadership shown by Man Utd in that moment.

All of a sudden Smalling sits down on the floor and then goes off the pitch and then comes back on in a central defensive area. He ends up picking up Harry Maguire who's the best header that Leicester have got.

You can't believe the disorganisation, the lack of leadership shown by Manchester United at the end of that game in a game they should have won.

Jose will be furious when he watches that back. Particularly, that last five or six minutes.

See Also: Emmanuel Eboue Has Fallen On Desperately Hard Times

 

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