In the long history of Manchester United, few nights have been as humiliating as the 4-0 loss to MK Dons in the second round of the League Cup, which isn’t a competition the club is really counting on succeeding in, but no one planned on being destroyed by a League One side.
Abysmal defense, zero spirit, and one manager who understands more every day just how big of a mess he has inherited, and how bad of a job he and the rest of the decision makers have done over the summer. Manchester United made terrible defensive mistakes at an alarming rate, with the hosts, a midtable team two tiers below the Red Devils, made the most of every opportunity.
The Manchester United side wasn’t just about young players. David de Gea was the goalkeeper, Jonny Evans was in the center of defense. Anderson, Shinji Kagawa and Nick Powell were in the midfield, while Chicharito and Danny Welbeck played up front. Adnan Januzaj was introduced later on. This isn’t the best side Manchester United can field, but this was far from being a team of nobodies.
So what actually happened? Defensive errors, shapeless formation, and a whole bunch of other things we’ve grown accustomed to see from a team that won the championship in 2013. Evans was the first to provide a terrible mistake, giving MK Dons the lead in the 25th minute with something that was more or less an assist to Michael Grigg.
The same Grigg put Dons 2-0 up in the second half, once again getting an assist from Ben Reeves, although this time the mistake came from Marnick Vermijl. Vermijl kept making mistakes, but he wasn’t alone, as Evans put in his worst performance in a United shirt.
Benick Afobe scored the third goal (and his first) who found himself completely open in the 70th minute in front of De Gea, who actually made quite a few saves during the match. Afobe once again found himself on the scoresheet in the 83rd minute, making the most of another mistake by Vermijl and complete softness from Evans, one of the players who might find themselves leaving by the end of the month, to complete the 4-0 demolition.