Resilience lost
BACK IN August, when Manchester United were leading the new-born Premier League table after a pair of 4-0 victories, Jose Mourinho said he would like to see his team fall behind, just to assess how they would cope with it.
Two months on, with the rain blowing horizontally and the Yorkshire crowd baying at every Huddersfield tackle and interception, the Manchester United manager had his answer.
The 2-1 defeat that left United five points behind Manchester City suggests they do not cope very well.
Winning a game from a losing position was one of the great hallmarks of the teams Sir Alex Ferguson created, immortalised in the two stoppage-time goals that snatched the European Cup in Barcelona as it was being taken down to the side of the pitch with Bayern Munich’s colours on it.
It is a tradition that has become increasingly stale as one by one Ferguson’s players took their leave of Old Trafford.
In the three-quarters of a season Manchester United allowed David Moyes they came from behind to win to four league games. Under Louis van Gaal, they managed it twice – once in the Manchester derby.
In 47 League games under Jose Mourinho, it is a trick Manchester United have treated their supporters to just once, at home to Middlesbrough in December.
In the small, neat press room at the John Smith’s Stadium, the word Mourinho kept coming out with was “attitude”. It was the worst he had ever known in his time at Manchester United.
He had seen more desire in the endless, tedious friendlies with which United pepper their summer.
Perhaps the word Mourinho might have used was “resilience”.
Once Phil Jones came off injured to be replaced by Victor Lindelof, a footballer for whom the word “hapless” might have been coined, Manchester United appeared to have little idea how to cope with the sheer aggression Huddersfield brought to their play.
Thomas Ince, who was at the heart of the Terriers’ midfield, remarked: “When you look at United, they are obviously a top-quality side but they don’t play with the same fluidity as your Spurs or Manchester City.
“They build up the game quite slowly, they like to get the ball out wide and we felt that, if we could win the ball back and try to exploit the space in behind , we could have an advantage.
“Of course, it was a shock to the system for them because they came here expecting to win but we are happy with a great day for the town.”
Thomas’s father, Paul, celebrated his 50th birthday on Saturday and the Manchester United side with which Ince won the Double in 1994, the team of Keane, Cantona, Robson and Kanchelskis, would have responded to a two-goal deficit against a newly-promoted team with rather more force.
When asked how he would celebrate, the Huddersfield manager, David Wagner, said it would be with a glass of cola –