Devil's diary: sound the emergency alerts - Manchester United have won a game
It was a brilliant comeback but it's difficult to be optimistic
Do not scratch your eyes. The dramatic 3-2 comeback win against AS Roma in the Champions League was United’s first win in near enough two months. Nine games without a win. The clocks went back, Halloween came and went, and some absolute wrong-uns started putting their Christmas trees up before our lads could allow us to taste victory once again.
In that time, I started to experience a newfound sense of disillusionment with the entire club. It was a feeling of numbness after each defeat. I’ve always been a blind hopeful. The ultimate positivist when it comes to supporting United. A belief rooted in me that a managerial change, or a new right-back, or a new suit in the boardroom would cure all of our problems.
This winless run changed that. I came to the sobering realisation that none of these things were likely to change anything. The manager looked more and more clueless after every defeat, the players looked like they didn’t care one bit, and the suits made me want to punch a hole in the telly every time the cameras showed their bewildered faces.
Yet, despite all of that, Tuesday night brought a part of that blind hopeful back. It was an exhilarating 40-odd minutes. From Bruno Fernandes’ retaken penalty to a topless Matheus Cunha dive-bombing into the Stretford End before getting himself sent off for a silly tackle, watching United mount a signature Old Trafford comeback once again was a sight to behold. The ground was bouncing from the moment Fernandes got his second bite at the penalty cherry. We all knew what was coming.
A word for 19-year-old Shea Lacey. The comeback felt inevitable, but it could have easily fallen on its face if it wasn’t for the academy graduate’s instant impact from the bench. The last time he got a mention here was after his picture-perfect strike gave us the lead against Brighton in the Carabao Cup, a game we of course went on to lose. Bafflingly, Michael Carrick decided to give him a meagre 16 minutes of game time up until the Roma encounter. The boy is clearly very talented, and he absolutely adores the club. Given how ineffective Amad Diallo has been, Carrick would be a fool not to award him with a start against Aston Villa on Sunday.
A word also for 28-year-old, vastly experienced, World Cup-winning centre-back, Lisandro Martínez, too. I defended him when he called out Jason Wilcox and the rest of the suits after the 2-0 defeat to Atlético Madrid because what he said was true. What he did during the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday was inexcusable. Smashing into an opponent to give away a penalty and getting sent off for it was absolutely braindead. It completely derailed what was a rare good first-half performance from the team, which on another day might have seen them take something home. It was the kind of challenge that, in my eyes, should have seen him rot on the bench until it was time to boot him out of the club for good.
Amazing as the comeback against Roma was, we can’t get carried away. We’ve been here before, against an Italian team managed by very much the same man we faced on Tuesday, Gian Piero Gasperini. Back in October 2021, United mounted an eerily similar comeback to beat Atalanta 3-2 at Old Trafford. Some journeyman going by the name of Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winner that day. United got a 5-0 spanking at the hands of Liverpool in the very next game. A month later, Ole Gunnar Solskjær was sacked, less than three years after being handed the job on a permanent basis following an inspiring interim spell. Familiar, right?
Carrick will be well aware of the parallels and will no doubt be determined to avoid the same fate. A home meeting with Unai Emery’s Aston Villa might just be the perfect fixture for him to stamp his authority. One Unai Emery, who has caused a big old stir after world-renowned pundit Jamie Carragher dared to suggest that he would be a fool not to jump up the food chain to join United.
Villa’s threat to sue Carragher was nothing short of laughable. They’re now scampering to renew Emery’s contract amid the speculation. Not to worry, lads. Super Michael Carrick shall be guiding us to glory for many years to come. Or not.
With the international break looming, the game on Sunday is as high stakes as it gets. Failure to capitalise on Tuesday’s salvage job could spell the end of yet another gaffer at M16.
