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‘I’ve never seen that before’ – Thierry Henry baffled by what Man Utd star did v Newcastle
Tom Olver
4 – 5 minutes
Newcastle United FC v Manchester United FC – Premier League
Leny Yoro had an afternoon to forget as Manchester United were thumped by Newcastle (Picture: Getty)
Thierry Henry has taken aim at Manchester United’s woeful defending against Newcastle and highlighted a moment from Leny Yoro which he had ‘never seen before’ in football.
The Red Devils slumped to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Newcastle after a dismal second-half performance at St James’ Park, with Harvey Barnes completing a 15-minute brace before Bruno Guimarees increased the deficit.
Alejandro Garnacho had earlier dragged United back into the contest with a composed finish to cancel out Sandro Tonali’s opener, but that was as good as it got for the visitors on Tyneside.
The defeat leaves United stranded down in 14th place in the table and means the club will end this season with their worst ever points tally in Premier League history, even if they win all six of their remaining matches.
It also ramps up the pressure on Ruben Amorim ahead of United’s Europa League quarter-final second leg against Lyon on Thursday night, which represents the side’s last path to Champions League qualification.
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Former United captain Roy Keane ripped into United’s lackadaisical defending in the north east, picking out Diogo Dalot and Altay Bayindir with some especially scathing criticism.
Featuring as a guest on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, legendary ex-Arsenal striker Henry instead chose to single out Yoro, encouraging viewers to watch the young centre-back’s bizarre body language after Barnes’ second goal.
Considering Barnes stole the ball from Noussair Mazraoui and couldn’t possibly have been offside, Henry had no idea why Yoro ended up looking in the linesman’s direction.
Henry was left stunned by Yoro’s body language after the goal (Picture: Sky Sports)
Newcastle United FC v Manchester United FC – Premier League
Barnes completed a 15-minute brace at a rapturous St James’ Park (Picture: Getty)
‘I invite everyone to stay on Leny Yoro. First and foremost, he’s going to try to play offside,’ Henry said.
‘It’s a great finish from Barnes but please stay on Yoro and what he’s asking for… pause.
‘I don’t know what he’s looking at. What are you looking at? Are you looking at the linesman to try to see if he’s going to bail you out? I don’t know.
‘I don’t know if he thought there was an offside, I don’t know. We all know it’s a goal! What are you looking at?! I actually don’t know. I’ve never seen that before.’
Watching back Barnes’ opening strike, Henry again criticised Yoro for failing to track the Newcastle winger’s run.
‘Diogo Dalot, I don’t know what he saw or what he thought was going to happen,’ the iconic former France and Arsenal forward added.
‘Leny Yoro doesn’t go back and try and defend it, they’re second in everything, the desire was one Newcastle’s side.
‘It’s just not good enough really.’
Speaking in the wake of United’s humbling loss at Newcastle, a defiant Amorim insisted he ‘didn’t care’ about any criticism coming his way from the media.
‘I understand but I don’t care. Nothing is worse than losing games,’ the Portuguese told reporters.
‘People can say whatever they want to say. I don’t want to defend myself or anything like that.
‘If you look at our position in the table, it says it all. Thursday is really important. Losing games is the hardest part by far of this job. Let’s focus on Thursday [against Lyon].’
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