Puel’s Frustration After Conceding Early On Against Man Utd
- Claude Puel wants Leicester City to improve how they start their Premier League games
- The manager was speaking after his side’s 1-0 defeat by Manchester United
- Marcus Rashford scored with just nine minutes on the clock
The Foxes fell behind after just nine minutes on Sunday during their 1-0 loss to Manchester United at King Power Stadium, as Marcus Rashford converted from Paul Pogba’s pass.
City grew into the game and had opportunities to equalise through James Maddison, Ricardo Pereira, Jamie Vardy and Rachid Ghezzal, but they could not breach the Red Devils’ back line.
“[There is] a lot of frustration again because we had a poor performance at the beginning of the game,” Puel told LCFC TV. “We have had the first good ball and first good recovery but all the time we didn’t take our responsibility to play forward and take the space and put them under pressure.
“At the same time, we played laterally or behind but yes, it was poor about our intention, I don’t know why. When we played forward, we gave good support with good attack.
“We have had the opportunity in the first half to come back and our beginning in the second half was interesting, better, with a lot of pressure, good impact, good quality in the play with a lot of chances.
“In the middle of the second half we had difficulty to find a second wind and after with the support from the bench we had a strong finish with a lot of chances and the possibility to make a draw at the minimum.
“I think at the end it’s not a fair result because we deserved a draw, perhaps more. Our beginning of the game is not enough, another goal conceded early and it’s another situation to chase the game and to get back against this team is difficult.”
Puel believes that although City have not produced the desired results in recent weeks on home turf, they have still displayed their ability.
The Frenchman added: “I think we showed our quality in a lot of games, a lot of character and personality to get back in the game after conceding goals but I would like it if we could manage our game, at the beginning of the game.
“We need the right intention and the right quality and not to suffer the game and not to show too much respect to this opponent.
“It seems we have had too much respect against this team, we show our quality when we play with the right intention and we can put the right balance in our game.
“We show a lot of good things, our quality and a lot of chances and half chances also and we deserved to come back in the game.”