Man Utd’s Arsenal win could be turning point… but playing like plucky Championship side shows how far club have fallen
RUBEN AMORIM knew he had walked into a mess at Manchester United.
But the sheer size of that debacle has only become clearer BECAUSE of the club’s two best results of the season.
United are supposed to play with a swagger, with composure and class.
Control and poise . . . “the United way”.
Matches when victory was a given, the only question being the scoreline.
You know . . . “Glory, Glory, Man United”.
Not gory, gory. Not relying on defensive desire and determination, a missed penalty and opponents whose radar in front of goal disappeared when it really mattered.
Not playing like an out-gunned Championship side happy to ride the Good Luck Express.
Getting through to the fourth round of the FA Cup, eliminating Arsenal, might be seen as proof of a United turning point.
Maybe so, in time.
Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt, in particular, gave absolutely everything, Bruno Fernandes played like a captain.
Yet such an attitude should be the MINIMUM expectation, not something worthy of praise.
As the travelling supporters celebrated Joshua Zirkzee rolling into the huge hole left vacant by the last of David Raya’s bizarre early dives in the penalty shootout at the Emirates on Sunday — rare to see a corner flag under so much threat — it actually showed how far United have fallen.
The biggest club in Britain, if not the world, needing backs-against-the-wall results twice in a week, surviving in the Cup on less than 30 per cent possession and out-shot by 26 attempts to seven.
That, it seems, is all Amorim and his players have at the moment.
No question the past few days have gone better than most United fans had feared.
Many of them crept up the road to Anfield praying to avoid humiliation, making the 2-2 Prem draw feel like a triumph — even if the stats told the REAL story.
And the 8,000 in the lower tier of the Emirates made a racket and a half as Amorim’s side dug in after the self-inflicted dismissal of Diogo Dalot.
But is this what United are supposed to be about?
Fans who grew up watching teams shake with terror at the prospect of taking on Sir Alex Ferguson’s side, now being forced to view games from behind the sofa and through clenched fingers?
Surely not.
Amorim inherited a dumpster fire, a basket case, an unholy quagmire. On and off the pitch.
That he is considering selling Kobbie Mainoo as well as Marcus Rashford to help fund a late swoop through the discard piles on offer for exaggerated prices in the last days of the January sales window is a sign of the financial issues he must confront as well.
Since that smash-and-grab derby victory at the Etihad, United are six games without a victory (in 90 minutes).
Under the Portuguese, it’s four wins in 13, two of those in the Europa League.
Those performances at Anfield and Arsenal were the easy ones — because there was no pressure.
It is the next seven, starting with Southampton, Brighton and Rangers at home over the next ten days — matches where wins are expected — that will tell the full story.
United have lost their last three at Old Trafford, beaten hollow by Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Newcastle, all of whom waited for Amorim’s side to walk into their traps and picked them off like a crippled hind.
That is likely to be the same approach the next three visitors take, meaning it will be all about United’s ability, or otherwise, to seize the initiative.
Perhaps what you call the “United Way”.
VAR FROM PROBLEM
GLAD to see such universal approval of the lack of VAR in the FA Cup third round.
Arsenal fans — who have become conspiracy theorists in chief — will doubtless have been utterly scandalised if it had been Rasmus Hojlund, rather than Kai Havertz, taking such a blatant penalty-box tumble.
I’m unconvinced it would have all kicked off if Stockley Park had been able to tell Andy Madley he’d got it so wrong.
Great entertainment for those watching at home. But a clear and potentially crucial mistake.
Madley and Co also seemed to miss a handball by Havertz just before he blasted a later sitter over.
Still, who needs correct decisions when we can get the wrong one so quickly?
IT’S TOTT FUNNY!
THE joke nearly fell flat on the Comedy Club . . . also known as Tottenham.
But having emerged, just, from their scrape with humiliation at Tamworth, Spurs have the chance to do the decent thing.
Supremo Daniel Levy does not need Tottenham’s £150,000 share of gate receipts and TV money.
The Lambs, denied a money-spinning replay — which might have been worth £600,000 or more — certainly do.
How about a bargain, Daniel: Hand over the cash and we shall never speak of this again.
CUP HALF EMPTY
WEMBLEY chiefs did not “kill” the FA Cup by abolishing replays this season — they already did it 25 years ago.
When Manchester United were allowed to skip the competition to play in the one-off Club World Cup in 2000, it was the day the grand old lady started to lose her lustre.
Ever since it’s been putting lipstick on a pig.
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