Terrace Talk: Yuletide miracle at Anfield top of Santa wish list

Terrace Man Utd What? Two entertaining United games — in a row?! It must be Christmas, because it’s just what we wanted. In fact, Santa’s come a bit too early, unless he’s somehow planning to top it all on Sunday at Anfield. Now that really would constitute a Yuletide miracle.

What? Two entertaining United games — in a row?! It must be Christmas, because it’s just what we wanted. In fact, Santa’s come a bit too early, unless he’s somehow planning to top it all on Sunday at Anfield. Now that really would constitute a Yuletide miracle.

One can’t help feeling that putting “a win at Liverpool” on the festive wish list is pushing it a bit — like a six-year-old asking for a rocket ship instead of a bike. But such is the giddying effect of six goals in two matches, and of the wonderful realisation that life without Pogba might actually be better for us all.

Yes, José dealt with the “virus” in the best way possible; by isolating it to stop the spread. Pogba cut a rather pathetic figure on the touchline on Saturday and, although he has been promised a run-out in Spain on Wednesday night, his place in the weekend crunch game must surely be at risk. It is, of course, a damning indictment of everyone involved that we should even be contemplating playing such a massive match without a €100m World Cup winner. What a long way we have come from a year ago, when Pogba was still viewed as the rough diamond rock around which we needed to construct a midfield.

Not that everything is suddenly hunky-dory now that he’s been smacked down.

Player sources are still reporting only 10% of the club playing staff are fully behind José for the long-term; others are lukewarm bet-hedgers, and some are praying he leaves.

It is against this background that agent Jorge Mendes made his remarkable and unprompted intervention during the week, assuring us all that José was not seeking an exit. Always beware when someone answers a question that was never actually asked.

Keep your eyes peeled for newspaper stories that look like they may have been put out in response by Ed Woodward!

But enough of all those off-pitch psychodramas. What of the football? Are you the glass-half-full kind of Red who’s prepared to see four goals against the Cottagers, and good attitude against the Gunners, as harbingers of a brighter new year? Or are you putting the latter down to basic professionalism requirements, and the former to Fulham being relegation-fodder drek?

It would surely be absurd to start treating a turkey-shoot such as Saturday’s as anything more than a morale-booster at this stage, massively welcome though it was. And there’s no doubt that we could have done with some other opponent being next on the cards in the league, as we seek to clamber all the way out of the hole we had dug ourselves into during November. Let’s be honest; Klopp and the Kop have a chance to snuff out forever what’s left of these flickering Portuguese embers.

Still, the sight of City losing at Chelsea has reminded us that the supposed Premiership demi-gods are mortal. It was City’s first domestic defeat, leaving LFC as the only unbeaten outfit and on top of the league. There are two things no United fan wants to witness; City winning the European Cup, and Liverpool the League. Sunday now feels like an 80s throwback; plucky inferior United, messing about amongst the also-rans and just hoping to scrape into Europe, heading off to perform David against the Anfield Goliath. And time after time, we’d pull it off, often sabotaging their title challenges. Happy days, despite the relative lack of trophies, when your correspondent still had all his hair and marbles....

Then we had Bryan Robson; now we have Paul Pogba. ‘Dear Santa: can we swap them?’