TERRACE TALK: Man United - A roar of relief as Zlatan’s high jinks save the day
After a week of receiving more new and old media attention than at any point since he arrived at Old Trafford, he almost inevitably played a stinker yesterday.
But thanks to his high jinks mate Zlatan rescuing the match, he has narrowly escaped a full-on parade around The Scapegoat Ring, just when Rooney must’ve been thinking it’d be nice to see someone else getting pelted in there for a change.
Wayne must also have thought his magic moment had finally come in those final 60 seconds, as did we all; everyone had read the suggested script. Having beaten his man, he couldn’t get his final product sorted, and thus there’d be no gushing about the Evertonian breaking the goals record against his, and our, most hated opponents.
Let us be fair here: Rooney providing a last-gasp win for United would’ve been unjust, and only the greediest Red should have been left unsatisfied at the whistle. That roar of relief and joy for the equaliser was memorable reward enough for the reasonably-minded thrill-seeker.
Marvel, too, at the undeniable impact of Fellaini, whose recent support from Mourinho had annoyed many a fan. It is, of course, usually a sign that things are going pear-shaped when the plum appears on the pitch as a sub, it being generally a harbinger of slightly desperate Route One-ary. It’s become Pavlovian; the mere sight of his hair instinctively instills bad vibes. But he did his job, which is more than Pogba did.
Hacks and nerdy experts will be crawling over the entrails of the match now to “look for lessons” as they readjust their 2017 predictions but I’m not sure we learned more from yesterday than we did from the previous two Liverpool matches — and that goes for both sides. As someone remarked on the way out, “the only winners today were Chelsea” — yesterday’s teams only proved again that they are not yet as good as Conte’s.
Manc Reds can also spend the next few days reminding some other supporters of uncomfortable truths, namely those of Manchester City, whose fabulous and historic collapse at Everton had meant everyone entering O.T. was already in a terrific mood.
Failure to beat Liverpool meant we missed the chance to draw level on points but one can only rub one’s hands in glee at the thought of what that hiding might do to Pep’s head. I know this will sound very mean-spirited and even a bit pathetic but plenty of Reds believe — and oh so fervently pray — that Guardiola may end up ‘doing a Keegan’ this year. Given that most pundits back in August had Mourinho down as the cast-iron candidate for the 2016/17 Funny Farm, whilst seemingly assuming beatification would only be matter of time for Saint Pep, this would be a delicious reversal of fortune. His post-match interview was certainly promising, anyway.
Thinking of Keegan and his mid-90s Newcastle meltdown leads us naturally to the manager of our next opponents, Mark Hughes, who suffered a bad injury whilst scoring against Keegan’s side in 1995, and then saw himself effectively replaced in the pecking order days later by Keegan’s star player. Six months later and he was gone. It’s a reminder of how fast things can change in football: Hughesy went from being the legendary chief warrior of the 1994 double winners to cast-off in 12 months. Guardiola may yet go from god to strait-jacket in a year, just as Mourinho is morphing from monster to majestic Manc mainman. One thing won’t change, though; late equalisers against Liverpool never get forgotten. Consider your moment immortal, Zlatan; just don’t be tempted to make it into an emoji.
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