Somewhere in Portugal, Rubén Amorim would have been following the events here at Old Trafford and praying that Sporting Lisbon does not prevent him from becoming Manchester United manager for a moment longer.
Much more of this and United could withdraw their contract offer and give the job to Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Somewhere in Holland, Erik ten Hag will have been shouting at his television and wondering where some of these United players have been hiding all season.
Having struggled to reach the proverbial barn door for so long before the Dutchman’s departure on Monday, United scored four goals before half-time for the first time since 2020 to reach the Carabao Cup quarter-finals in a exciting opening night for the interim coach. Van Nistelrooy. Ten Hag also loved mugs.
In defense of United’s players, they beat Barnsley seven times without reply in the last round at Old Trafford last month. This was also a Leicester team that showed no less than nine changes from the one that lost to Nottingham Forest on Friday night. Whether United can do the same to the Foxes in the Premier League here a week on Sunday would be a different matter.
Ruud van Nistelrooy won his first game in charge of Manchester United and beat Leicester by five
Captain Bruno Fernandes scored twice and impressed in the first game since the dismissal of Erik ten Hag.
Casemiro also scored two goals, one of them with a screamer, and one of Ten Hag’s signings silences his critics.
Steve Cooper’s side also scored twice before half-time, so United by no means got away with it.
But this was a performance full of freedom, initiative and enjoyment, something we rarely saw under Ten Hag.
Casemiro, the man who scored the last goal of the former manager’s reign at West Ham on Sunday, scored another couple here, including a sensational strike from 30 yards to get things going. He seemed like a reborn player. Bruno Fernandes got his first two of the season and Alejandro Garnacho got another.
It was just the kind of performance Van Nistelrooy would have hoped for to at least boost his claims to remain under the new regime, if not to change United’s mind about Amorim entirely. After all, this was only United’s fourth win in 14 games this season.
The former United striker certainly looked the part as he came out dressed all in black and gave the crowd a punch, having offered his condolences to Ten Hag in his show notes.
“As you can all imagine, I’m sure I write with an enormous amount of mixed emotions,” it reads.
“Erik ten Hag brought me back to Manchester United in the summer and, although I have only been part of the coaching staff here for a few months, I will always be grateful to him for giving me the opportunity, and I am sad to see him leave,” adding that United can be “unstoppable” if everyone pulls in the same direction.
There was certainly no stopping Casemiro’s great shot in the 15th minute. Lisandro Martínez passed the ball to Garnacho and Fernandes dodged his pass to Casemiro. The Brazilian looked up and saw he had time to line up a 30-yard shot into the top corner.
It was a ruthless performance by the Dutch team, who finally took advantage of the chances they had wasted at will in previous matches.
Conor Coady provided some food for thought when he scored just before half-time to close the gap and make it 4-2.
It was, overall, a performance full of freedom, initiative and enjoyment, something we rarely saw under Ten Hag.
Only one of Van Nistelrooy’s 150 goals for United came from outside the box, so you can imagine his delight as he walked away on the touchline, fists clenched again.
It was a clever pass from Casemiro down the touchline that took Diogo Dalot away from Boubakary Soumare and allowed him to cross for Garnacho to fire into the roof of the net for the second goal.
Leicester pulled one back against the run of players when United substitute goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, Van Nistelrooy’s only obvious concession to the Carabao Cup, punched away Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s free-kick, but there was no stopping Bilal The Khannous and his low effort flew. inside the second post.
A United team that was horrible at protecting leads under Ten Hag was unfazed. Fernandes’ free kick on the edge of the area took a hard deflection off James Justin as it went in, and Casemiro hit both posts with a header from Marcus Rashford’s cross before crashing home the rebound.
Leicester gave Old Trafford something to think about at half-time after Conor Coady fired home from close range when Casemiro’s clearance hit Dalot.
But after withstanding some early pressure in the second half, Fernandes took advantage of a poor back pass from Caleb Okoli to round goalkeeper Danny Ward and score the fifth.
The United team, who were terrible at maintaining the lead under Ten Hag, were unfazed on Wednesday.
Ten Hag will have been shouting at his TV and wondering where some of these United players have been hiding.
Ruben Amroim hopes Sporting Lisbon will allow him to jump ship before Van Nistelrooy gets too comfortable
Substitute Amad Diallo was inches away with a kick and at the other end Bayindir touched Soumare’s shot against the crossbar.
But United had done more than enough to make Van Nistelrooy a happy man, even if Ten Hag would not have appreciated it. As for Amorim, one imagines he can’t wait for the ink to dry on that contract.