United nearly repeated the same mistake in the Premier League away to Leeds United, leading by two goals in the first half, but losing two consecutive equalizers in 24 seconds in the second half, it seems to be about to repeat the tragedy of being forced to draw by Aston Villa. At this point, Lonnick's substitution changed the situation, he replaced Pogba and Jesse Lingard with Fred and Anthony Erlanga, both of whom scored goals after coming off the bench, and United eventually won 4-2. The Red Devils have scored the Leeds United goal nine times this season in two legs, setting a new record.
The figure shows that this is the 700th victory of Manchester United clubs in the Premier League! It is worth mentioning that 399 of these 700 wins have been completed at Old Trafford, which means that winning against Watford in the next round is another milestone - 400 home wins in the Premier League.
Pogba started and was one of the best players in the game, so Ronnick caused controversy when he replaced him. But the German proved to be the right choice, with Fred scoring the crucial third goal just three minutes into the game, once again giving United the lead.
It is worth mentioning that Brazil's iron waist has not scored any goals under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this season, and Lonnick has scored two Premier League goals in the four months since he took office, and both are very critical. The last time Fred scored, it was Lonnick's coaching debut, beating Crystal Palace 1-0 at home.
Opta stats also show that United's substitutes have scored 10 goals this season, at least four more than any other team, following fred and Erlanga's goals.
After the game, When Asked by Sky Sports about Lonnick's substitution, the United boss replied: "It's easy to do in hindsight, and it's not hard for me to explain now. But I just thought that the intensity of the team in the game needed to be improved, and although Paul (Pogba) performed well, he was already a little tired, after all, he had been absent for a long time due to injury and had just returned not long ago."
Jesse Lingard started unexpectedly in this round, but was in a slump, with little presence in the game and no surprise that he was replaced. However, Lonnick chose the 19-year-old Swedish fast horse Ellanga instead of england star Marcus Rashford, which is also quite bold. In response, Lonnick explained: "Fred and Elanga, these are two energetic players on the bench, and we have decided to arrange for them to play very early."
In addition, the midweek Champions League knockout match against Atletico Madrid may also be one of the reasons why Lonnick replaced Pogba early, when Manchester United also needed the French superstar to be dispatched in midfield.
Commenting on the rose derby, Lonnick said: "It was a very intense game, if you are a neutral fan, the game must be very good, there are not many dull moments. It took us 10 or 15 minutes to get into shape, and I think the next half hour the team played great, putting a lot of pressure on the opponents to force them to retreat to their own half-time, the game was almost all played in leeds United's half, we were 2-0, in fact the score had every chance to become 3-0 or even 4-0."
"At half-time, we knew very well that the opponent would definitely fight back and increase aggressiveness. But I think Leeds United's first goal was an accident, I don't think Rodrigo wanted to shoot, his intention was to pass, but anyway, within two minutes, the score suddenly became 2-2. Lonnick added, "It took us 5 minutes to get back to stability and I think the response was great, we showed maturity, the whole team stayed calm on the pitch and in the end our win was a well-deserved result. We knew it was an important win, similar to against West Ham, where we finished the deadlock. The significance of today is not only in winning, but also in how we reacted after being equalized, and that was the best answer the team gave."
Lonnick was pleased with Maguire and other Manchester United players and refuted the British media rumors with his actual performance. "In terms of maturity and unity, it was the perfect response from the players, refuting last week's article that said there were differences in our dressing room. Today's game, you can only rely on the whole team, rely on team spirit to achieve. In addition to the 3 points, in my opinion, this is also the key thing."
After Fred's goal, Erlanga celebrated the goal when he was hit by a coin thrown by a Leeds United fan. In this regard, Lonnick said that there is no big problem. "As far as I know, Leeds United has launched an investigation. I don't think there were any other problems that happened later, Erlanga was in good shape and he was happy to score goals. Of course, this kind of thing shouldn't happen. The atmosphere in this game was wonderful and sometimes we had to calm down on the pitch. I don't want accidents, I don't want to see red and yellow cards."