Manchester United fans deserve much better: Matic after defeat to Leicester

Midfielder Nemanja Matic has opened up about the huge disappointment he felt after Saturday's 4-2 defeat to Leicester, and sent his apologies to the travelling Manchester United fans present at the King Power Stadium.

But the Serbian refused to wallow after the chastening defeat, and insisted the Reds remain in the title race despite the setback. "We are sorry for them [the supporters]," lamented Matic as per manutd.com. "They support us, especially away [and] they are top. They deserve much, much better than this." "We will do our best to make them happy in the future. But we have 14 points - we are still in the title race. We don't want to give up until the end."

United took the lead in the East Midlands with a superb Mason Greenwood long-ranger, but eventually succumbed to Leicester pressure in the final 15 minutes of the game, where the Foxes scored three times - despite a Marcus Rashford goal which briefly levelled the score at 2-2.

"Of course, we are disappointed," the 32-year-old continued. "Everyone is sad, everyone is with their head down at the moment. But when you play for Man United, if you don't win the game of course you are disappointed, but we have to stick together." "It's time to stick together, to analyse this game as soon as possible, then to think about the next one, which is in three or four days against a very good side, Atalanta. It's also going to be hard. We are very disappointed, but I think that, in the future, we will show we are much better than this."

United have two home games up next, both of which are equally important: a crunch Champions League home match against Atalanta, and then the always-intense visit of Liverpool to Old Trafford.

( With inputs from ANI )