Bedlam, pandemonium, ecstasy and simply wow: Manchester United’s three-goal, six-minute (and 34 seconds) blockbuster extra-time comeback from 4-2 down is one for the ages, and a thrilling advertisement for the heart-stopping drama football can generate.
Yet if the Harry Maguire header that KO’d Lyon was a last, heroic act of a pell-mell, childhood-like jumpers-for-goalposts victory, it should also clang alarm bells for the fragile unit Ruben Amorim oversees, and cause a serious reality check.
Because streaked through the 5-4 Europa League quarter-final win (7-6 on aggregate) was the latest United collapse provoked by amateurish defending that had Lyon drawing level in the second half from two goals down, then leading 4-2 in the 109th minute with 10 men, after Corentin Tolisso’s sending off in regulation time.
Here we see the chaos of Amorim-ball that has scant structure and is akin to the continent’s supposed rising-young-star coach sending out an XI and hoping for the best, while fearing that the worst is (almost) certainly going to occur.
Amorim’s hiring was not supposed to be like this. When Erik ten Hag was sacked on 28 October, United were seven points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa. Now, they are in the same 14th place but 17 points behind Manchester City in the fifth position recently confirmed as a Champions League berth. The Portuguese arrived on a ticket of a 3-4-3 shape that has proved non-negotiable despite the flatlining league performance and helter-skelter Europa League campaign.
In the latter, a 92nd-minute Bruno Fernandes goal was needed to beat Rangers in January. Rasmus Højlund’s 88th-minute strike beat Viktoria Plzen in December. Last week, United were leading 2-1 in the first leg at Lyon on 88 minutes after Joshua Zirkzee’s header but Rayan Cherki’s 95th-minute shot grabbed a draw. André Onana was culpable but the wider picture was of familiar disarray in United’s area.
It is the same in attack. At Old Trafford on Thursday Maguire had to be shunted forward as a makeshift No 9 owing to a lack of alternatives, joining Kobbie Mainoo. The 19-year-old Mainoo scored a calm equaliser (in minute 120) yet shoving an attacking midfielder and centre-back up front is as unsustainable as relying on a 33-year-old Casemiro to be chief creator – the Brazilian was involved in all three of United’s extra-time goals, providing assists for Maguire and Mainoo and winning the penalty scored by Fernandes.
The emergency roles for Maguire and Mainoo show up the dismal construction of a squad that contains only two centre-forwards in Zirkzee (who is injured and a more natural No 10) and Højlund, who lacks service from Amorim’s dysfunctional side.
Factor in, too, Amorim’s seemingly quaint man-management of Marcus Rashford, whom he bombed out and who is pulling up trees at Aston Villa on loan.
As Maguire says: “You can see that we’re probably short on attackers. We had two in the squad in Garners [Alejandro Garnacho] and Rasmus and they gave everything out there. Garners was on his last legs and he was up and down the pitch numerous times. So if he [Amorim] asks me to go up there, I’m willing to.”
Maguire is frank, too, about the slipshod organisation: “I don’t know how I would have felt if I had come here and been speaking after a 4-2 defeat – it’s not even worth trying to think about that. The second half was comfortable; they had a lot of possession but they didn’t create chances. Then they scored the first goal out of nothing, really.”
For nothing read Moussa Niakhaté and Alexandre Lacazette being allowed to play head-tennis before Tolisso scored with a third header on 71 minutes.
after newsletter promotion
“It was pinball in our box and they managed to put it in,” Maguire says. “With the season that we’ve had, at Old Trafford especially, we started maybe playing a little anxiously, and that’s understandable. But we needed to see out those minutes and be solid, so to end up at 2-2 straight away [through Nicolás Tagliafico in the 77th minute], it was difficult to take.”
Cherki’s 104th-minute finish and Lacazette’s penalty on 109 derived from further panic. Maguire says: “Then, in extra time, we obviously can’t get done on two counterattacks like that when we’re playing against 10 men; it’s criminal really. But we showed great spirit at that moment.”
A number of United fans left, with some returning as the game was turned upside down. On Instagram Zirkzee said alongside a clip of the Old Trafford noise: “To all the fans who left when we were down. Have a listen to this.” You could hardly blame those who did depart. As Maguire says: “This season it’s been so difficult for everyone involved, all the fans, all the players, the staff.”
For those who witnessed it memories were cast. This is what United do. Thursday’s box-office finish can be added to a long list that includes last term’s last-gasp FA Cup elimination of Liverpool, the ceding of a 3-0 advantage to Coventry in the semi-final before a breathless penalty shootout win, and, of course, the 1999 Champions League final triumph.
After beating Coventry, United claimed the FA Cup and victory over Lyon capped a spine-tingling week for English clubs on the continent after Arsenal knocked out Real Madrid and Aston Villa went close to their own Lazarus act against Paris Saint-Germain.
So a last question: will Maguire’s late, late seizing of the narrative prove Amorim’s Mark Robins moment or a freak occurrence that exposes United’s lack of what the coach needs to make them a force again?
Source: theguardian.com
