IS THIS THE END FOR WAYNE?
Skipper sits out most of rout as Jose works oracle
THE Einstein in the Manchester United dugout got it right at last.
Jose Mourinho followed the lead of the fans and finally worked out a theory that involved dropping Wayne Rooney. When he put it into practice against the champions of England, it worked like a dream.
This was Rooney’s welcome to a world where he is collateral damage. Where the savagery of advancing years wreak havoc on a career. United purred without their captain. In fact, they played so well against Leicester it is difficult to see him forcing his way back into the side any time soon.
This felt like a crossroads moment. Rooney is not the main man any more. He got on the pitch as a substitute for Marcus Rashford eight minutes from time, but it was too late to make any impact. The attack functions around Zlatan Ibrahimovic now and Rooney was sacrificed yesterday for players who complement Old Trafford’s new icon and looked a natural fit with him during this 4-1 trouncing of Claudio Ranieri’s side.
‘When our main striker is Zlatan we need fast people surrounding him to bring that intensity to the game,’ said Mourinho before the match.
In Rooney’s absence, others stepped up. Paul Pogba thoroughly deserved his first goal for the club amidst the rout. Ander Herrera was superb, too. Rashford, Ibrahimovic and Jesse Lingard linked well in attack.
United were impressive but Leicester made them look even better. It was sad to see men who scaled such heights last season and created one of the most memorable stories in English football history reduced to this. They were a shambles in the first half.
This, though, was about United and a return to form after the shock of successive defeats against Manchester City and Watford. It was also a welcome relief for Mourinho, who has been under siege and who mocked ‘the Einsteins’ in the media who had started to suggest his own career was in decline. This emphatic victory was a trenchant response.
United took the lead midway through the first half when they won a corner. Daley Blind swung it over and Chris Smalling, United captain in Rooney’s absence, rose above Robert Huth to power his header down and goalwards. Leicester keeper Ron-Robert Zieler tried to push the ball out but only succeeded in palming it into the corner.
United might easily have gone two goals up a few minutes later when Ibrahimovic raced on to a through-ball from Herrera and squared it to Rashford. But the striker’s first touch was a little heavy and he blazed his shot high over the bar.
United were rampant now. Pogba, looking more comfortable at last, dinked a chip over Leicester’s static defence and into the path of Ibrahimovic, and he chested it down and turned in one moment. Despite catching his volley sweetly, it flew just too high.
Eight minutes before half-time, United finally doubled their lead. It was the kind of beautifully worked goal their football had been threatening, the kind of goal their football deserved. Pogba was instrumental in the move again, flicking a clever ball forward for Lingard, who laid it off to Juan Mata and he rifled his shot past Zieler.
Leicester were reeling, an impotent, uncertain shadow of the team that carried all before them last
season, and United capitalised. Five minutes before half-time, they went further ahead.
Blind took a quick corner towards the near post, Mata swept it on and Rashford stretched to prod it high into the net.
A minute later, United made it four. Another corner from Blind found the Leicester defence in disarray again and this time it was Pogba who ran on to it and glanced his header across Zieler and into the bottom corner.
Pogba and Herrera had been dominating the game in the centre of midfield and the rest of United’s parts were operating smoothly around them.
Leicester were part of the equation, too. They were abject. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, kings of last season, were taken off at half-time.
They deserved their fate too. Mahrez in particular has been unable to get anywhere near the level he reached when they won the title.
‘After the first goal, we switched off our minds,’ said Ranieri.
Leicester clawed back a little pride after an hour when sub Demarai Gray unleashed a 25-yard drive into the top corner.
And Rooney came on for an eight-minute cameo, but there was not enough time for him to make an impression.
He may have to get used to that.