Terrace Talk: Man United - Wakey, wakey, our living nightmare continues

By Richard Kurt

For about 20 minutes during the second half at Wastelands, you could sense United fans excitedly muttering to themselves all over the world: “Surely we’re not going to get away with this yet again?!”

The unbelievably awful first half — yes, awful even by United’s wretched first half standards this autumn — could be forgotten.

As City began to look slightly impatient and their fans uttered their first groans of the day, the extraordinary possibility of a third Red robbery in a row was homing into view.

Bournemouth was good, Juventus was great, but this...well, this would’ve been something else altogether.

And then moments later, City calmly, methodically, brilliantly put together 44 passes to score; it was as though we were being woken from a dream, to be returned to a living nightmare. Suddenly we were reminded of our true place in the current football pecking order, one that we’d been in danger of forgetting in the afterglow of Turin.

That is; we’re still a distant second best in our own backyard and an increasingly poor bet to renew our wavering status as one of the nation’s Top Five. Wakey wakey; morning everyone!

Moreover, we’ve a team who couldn’t do what City just did. The players don’t have the sustained levels of skill and concentration required - or rather, perhaps, they no longer have the space or self-confidence with which to exhibit such talents, should they possess them.

That 44-pass goal was one of the most obviously stunning examples of having one’s face rubbed in it that I’ve ever seen.

We all know, and have grudgingly grown to accept, that this current squad and manager cannot hope to match the quality and control of City’s football. That moment was them showing us in painfully exquisite detail the fullest extent of our overall technical and stylistic shortcomings.

We can call them ‘The Cheats’ as much as we like - and in the aftermath of the ongoing Football Leaks, we are doing so quite heartily - but being able to justify calling someone a name is never going to compensate for having one’s bottom so thoroughly smacked in front of everyone.

The earlier trip to Turin won’t be forgotten, of course. Not only was it one of the better Red Army expeditions of recent times, it was clearly one of the best United European results of the past decade.

But one can’t help feeling that much of what we might’ve gained as a club over the whole week was thrown away at City. Even though one can plausibly argue that United did come close to a result on Sunday.

So now we have the pleasure of stewing miserably in our pants and brooding about it for the next two weeks. Blessed are those Reds (such as me) who’d already booked a cheeky holiday to fill the gap before the Palace match; at least we have a fighting chance of not encountering any Blues for the next fortnight.

What then? Before Turin, I spoke to a friend of Mourinho who claimed the boss was still defiant about our prospects this season.

According to the source, Jose reckons City and Liverpool will drop more points than expected, and thinks United will be a much stiffer proposition after the next transfer window.

I suppose it’s good for fans to hear that the manager isn’t a defeatist, as some had earlier suspected, but beware him going too far in the other direction and ending up in delusional territory.

Many years ago, in the happy days of City’s Keegan era, I recall coming home from another 3-1 defeat at their place on a bus that was slowly weaving its way through a Blue-filled council estate in south Manchester.

At every stop I was forced to witness cavorting Bitters in the street, loudly revelling in their rare sunlit moment.

Miserable a day though it was, I still took comfort knowing United would bounce back soon enough to put them in their rightful place.

Now, as I look out of the window of this figurative bus you’ve joined me on, all I see is dark clouded skies.

Winter is coming...