Lifeless Leicester draw proves Rangnick's side don't belong in Champions League

The Red Devils dropped two more points at Old Trafford, dealing another devastating blow to their hopes of finishing in the Premier League's top four

Paul Pogba said during the winter break that Manchester United’s season was already "dead", so perhaps it should have come as no surprise that the players produced a lifeless display for the majority of Saturday's Premier League clash with Leicester.

Of the two teams, United had more to play for at Old Trafford.

Leicester are rooted in mid-table, their focus on Thursday's Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg against PSV, given the competition represents their best chance of qualifying for Europe next season.

United, though, simply had to win Saturday's evening kick-off.

They went into the game trailing fourth-placed Arsenal by five points having played one game more; three points were, therefore, essential to their hopes of securing a Champions League spot.

And yet United only managed to play with any intensity or urgency after Kelechi Iheanacho put Leicester ahead in the 63rd minute.

Ralf Rangnick had insisted on Friday that his players were motivated to finish the season well, but there was little evidence of any drive or passion until the final stages of an underwhelming 1-1 draw.

The sad fact of the matter is that the quality of football United have produced this season does not belong in the Champions League.

And, having dropped two more precious points, it now seems unlikely that they will be mixing it with Europe's elite next.

United still have eight games to play, but they must travel to both Liverpool and Arsenal in the next couple of weeks.

The feeling before kick-off was that those two trips would define their top-four challenge but, after Saturday's draw, it will be all but over if they don't take six points from their next two outings, against Everton and Norwich.

To get that illustrious top four spot they will not only need a helping hand from their rivals but also a drastic improvement.

The absence of Cristiano Ronaldo, due to "flu-like symptoms", meant they played with a strikerless system.

It might go some way to explaining the lack of coherent attacking patterns and the fact Kasper Schmeichel was rarely threatened.

They were, yet again, relying on moments of sublime quality – which just didn’t come.

The real inspiration came down the other end of the pitch, as James Maddison whipped a perfect ball in for Iheanacho to head in Leicester’s opener, and again when the England midfielder delivered a lovely free-kick which forced a remarkable save from David de Gea to deny Wesley Fofana.

It was just another one of those United performances that can be filed under 'mediocre'.

They were slightly improved in the second half but they were largely toothless in attack and they were given a reprieve for their sloppy defending as VAR ruled out what would have been a Maddison winner for a foul on Raphael Varane.

Every dropped point at this stage of the season represents another hammer blow to those fading top-four hopes.

United's season might not be "dead" yet, but it's definitely flatlining after his latest setback.