UNITED SPECIAL Time running out to repay the fans’ faith
MARCUS Rashford turned directly towards the Anfield Road end. Jesse Lingard vacated his seat on the bench and approached the United supporters. Anthony Martial disappeared down the tunnel.
Remarkably, there was not a murmur of discontent from ‘the best travelling fans in the country’ at fulltime on Sunday. With United 3-1 down and the gulf between them and Liverpool at its widest in nearly three decades, they chanted ‘oh United we love you.’
Jose Mourinho’s name was conspicuous by its absence from the repertoire of chants as the away dayers refused to outwardly turn against him. United fans could have been forgiven for turning.
Everton showed more intent at Liverpool than the Reds two weeks earlier, and the defeatist demeanour was strikingly similar to United’s last surrender at Anfield in the Europa League under Louis van Gaal.
He drove out of Carrington for the final time two months later.
They must have despaired at Plan Tree – Marouane Fellaini’s half-time introduction – and at Mourinho harking back to his past glories in the post-match debrief, a theme of his high-profile humblings.
They must have despaired at the dependence on Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic, Mourinho signings who are not going to crack their next ceiling. Liverpool have provided the Glazers with a watertight argument to deny Mourinho more funds in January – Pogba was on the bench, Fred was left behind in Manchester and Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly shipped three more goals.
The Reds boss has squandered hundreds of millions and the pressing question for Ed Woodward is whether the current United manager can turn things around. That seems unforeseeable.
Perhaps more surprising than United matchgoers’ sense of defiance is they have barely directed their ire on the board.
Woodward, who missed the Valencia defeat to attend meetings in New York in midweek, was back in attendance at Anfield, sat next to Sir Bobby Charlton. He has had a tactical view of the ‘spaghetti bolognese’ defending – as Gary Neville put it – from Brighton to Anfield and he is reaping what he has sown after a dormant deadline day in August. From Woodward’s perspective, the fans have not turned, voluble threats not to renew season tickets are scarce, Old Trafford still looks fullish on matchdays and the top-four precedent stands. Glazernomics dictated the thrifty summer transfer window and that extends to the manager’s fate. Sacking Mourinho now and hiring a replacement could cost nearly as much as Fred. It has not been 12 months since Woodward was photographed shaking hands with Mourinho and patting his back in the Carrington press room, with the ink drying on their documents. Jettison Mourinho now and the focus shifts onto the board for not backing the manager in the summer and removing him two weeks before the January window creaks open. Not that it should need clarifying, but Mourinho will still be in the dugout at Cardiff on Saturday and it is likely he will be there in the Parc des Princes when they face PSG in March. That ominous Champions