From calm to chaos in Scouse-busting double act

Manchester United and Michael Carrick once again put us through the wringer on Sunday.

We should all know that by now: there is no such thing as a relaxing afternoon watching the team for 90+ minutes, either in the ground or on TV. Once again, United made life very hard for themselves and almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. 

This was another high wire act, another 90 minutes in which United walked the metaphorical tightrope but again emerged victorious. I'm not sure I can take many more of these. After Monday's nervy win over Brentford, United's latest act of derring do took us on a rollercoaster, white-knuckle 95 minute ride back to the promised land. A return in the Champions League after two years away in typical harum scarum style. Can we make it a tad more comfortable next time? This club is going to be the death of me one of these days. Supporting it should come with a health warning. I wouldn't have it any other way, though. 

Record setting, record losing...

United look on course for a record win over Liverpool as we hit the front inside six minutes then moved 2-0 ahead after 16. Memories of THAT game at Anfield under Erik ten Hag came flooding back: maybe now, finally, United would eviscerate that with a 7-0 scoreline of our own.

Fat chance of that.

Instead, from that position of supreme comfort, United threw our most hated rivals a lifeline. A lifeline of two goals in ten second half minutes through Dominik Szoboszlai and one-time Reds target Cody Gakpo after errors from Amad and the usually unflappable Senne Lammens.

Suddenly, where there was joy, satisfaction and a sense that this was to be our day, came a feeling of helplessness. Hopelessness. Depleted Liverpool taking charge and threatening not only the mathematical certainty of Champions League football, but also THAT record. The one that has stood the test of time since 1984.

That year was the last time United had been beaten at Old Trafford in a league game when leading at half-time. Stretching to nearly 400 games across three decades, it is one everyone knows but one that fills you with dread every time it flashes up on screen. Surely one of, if not THE, most remarkable stats in football.

The highs and lows of football 

Bournemouth nearly broke it back in December, only a late Lammens save preserving parity in that particular see-sawing thriller.
But imagine losing it here. Not when you’re 2-0 up after 20 minutes. Not against Liverpool, our most despised adversary, from the position we were in. Surely it could not happen. We’d never hear the end of it. Another stick for them lot to lord it over us with, can you imagine?

One of the oldest and proudest chapters in the Manchester United story teetered on the very precipice of extinction. United had collapsed and fallen in on ourselves in front of our eyes. Slumped in a state of stunned silence, I was unable to quite believe what I was watching – at that stage, even the relative sanctuary of a point looked a long way off. I was convinced the record was going, right here and now, at the hands of that lot from Merseyside.

Oh ye of little faith..I really should know how this film ends by now, shouldn’t I?

Kobbie Dazzler

Then came the denouement, the thrilling final chapter in this topsy turvy tale. Sprinkled with vivacity and a touch of Carrick’s kindred spirit, United roused themselves once more. Luke Shaw had a fine game down the left and, from his cross, Liverpool failed to clear. If there was one man on the field that ball was just meant to drop to, it was Kobbie Mainoo.

The individual epitome of United’s collective resurgence since the turn of the year, Mainoo could quite easily be plying his trade elsewhere now. Had we stuck with Ruben Amorim, that seems almost a certainty. That we almost lost this fine, generational talent from our midst is a football crime of the highest order. Amorim's decision to overlook a player of Mainoo's calibre is one that looks more and more stupid by the week.

The outcast has become indispensable. 

Even in these early stages of his embryonic career, Mainoo has a CV most others can only dream of. A goal and a man of the match showing in an FA Cup final. A Euros final for England against Spain. THAT goal against Lyon. It is quite the resume.

But this goal, this winner, probably tops the lot. At the Stretford End, against Liverpool, to get United back into the land of milk and honey as one of our own. To complete a league double over them, in a week when he signed a new contract at Old Trafford. As the only Carrington graduate on the field. I doubt Mainoo has ever had a better few days than this. Whilst any win against them p***s is always sweet (I’d want us to beat them a tiddlywinks), for this to be delivered by a lad from the Academy makes it all the sweeter. Throw in the fact this was our first league double over the Scousers in a decade, and you have just about perfection. 

Up the Reds!