IT LOOKED OVER, BUT MOURINHO BREATHES AGAIN
FOR Jose Mourinho this could have been his Louis van Gaal moment, the day when a steady, trickling flow of uncertainty about his work at Manchester United turned into the kind of waterfall that can sweep good men all the way to unemployment.
For Van Gaal, his predecessor and one-time friend, the nadir was reached at Anfield in the Europa League in March 2016.
In the first game of a two-legged knockout tie, the United manager’s team passed up an opportunity to grab something of note from a modest season with a performance as hapless and hopeless as one could ever have imagined.
When you are Manchester United, you may not always win but you always compete. You can lose but you cannot lose like that.
That night on Merseyside, Van Gaal’s United rolled over and in the directors’ box Sir Alex Ferguson sat with a stare that could have splintered stone from 50 metres.
On Saturday at the home of another great foe, Ferguson had the thousand-yard stare on again. It was approaching half-time and he and his former chief executive David Gill were caught by the TV cameras as Manchester City sat on a two-goal lead that could easily have been three, four or five.
Ferguson and Gill oversaw some great years at Old Trafford. They set the standards. In this particular camera shot, they looked more than aghast or shocked or disappointed. They looked disgusted.
Mourinho and his players had come to East Manchester hoping to ruin a party. Instead, they were in danger of looking like the guests who had turned up in the wrong clothes.
So, yes, this could have been Mourinho’s Van Gaal moment, the day when the simmering suspicion felt towards the Portuguese by sections of the United support and by some significant people at the club turned into something much greater, much more dangerous.
That it didn’t happen — that United somehow managed to turn this game around — will long be remembered as one of the most remarkable afternoons in the history of this great fixture. Even in the nine-and a-half years of City’s modern ownership, there have been many great meetings between these clubs. None, though, have switched direction so dramatically and so inexplicably as this one.
It is hard to explain just how bad United were in the first half without using videos or diagrams to explain but two images help. One was of United’s centre forward Romelu Lukaku mistiming a jump for a ball in the centre circle so badly that he missed it by about a foot-and-ahalf. Had he managed to flick ck the ball on, there was not a red ed shirt within 15 yards of him to pick up possession anyway.
The other was of Jesse Lingard ines imploring his team-mates to raise themselves as they ey awaited the restart after City’s y’s second goal only to glance ce round and realise every single le colleague had his eyes fixed on the ground.
So this was how bad it was as for United on Saturday and d this is why what happened d in the second half may yet be e so significant for Mourinho o if he still has it in him to capitalise.
This result has the potential to change the narrative of United’s whole season. A heavy defeat would have ripped the heart from Mourinho’s team. This victory could do exactly the opposite.
United should now claim second place in the Premier League behind City and that in itself is important. To say that you were the best of the rest behind such a uniquely talented City team is not the shallowest boast in the world.
They should also head into their FA Cup semi-final with Tottenham in better spirits. They will be underdogs for the game at Wembley, Spurs’ temporary home, and that could help them. Victory in that game would then see them face a final against a poor Chelsea team or an even worse Southampton side.
So, it is not inconceivable that United could win another trophy. If so, it would be the third major one of Mourinho’s two seasons at United and a campaign that already includes wins over Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and City would not look so bad, on paper at least.
So can Mourinho kick his team on from here? That is the great imponderable. There are so many questions about his management these days that it is so hard to say.
Next weekend, they need to beat West Brom at home to ensure City’s wait for coronation extends into yet another weekend. As strange as it sounds, you would not put it past United to foul that one up.
But Mourinho has an opportunity now, at least. He breathes. Van Gaal was effectively dead at United once that night at Anfield was over. His successor, in his own inimitable style, lives on.