Back in August, when the days stretched long into the evening and the temperature left only short sleeves as a viable option on ones torso, Manchester United found themselves 2-0 down. It was Wembley, it mattered not that only the Community Shield was at stake, Manchester City were about to re-assert their dominance.
Chris Smalling pulled a goal back shortly after the resumption and all who were watching on knew that an equaliser would only be a matter of time – it took six minutes.
Generally speaking, football’s laws of physics and momentum state that a team who comes from two goals down shall not lose that game. In United’s case, their aura – forged by Steve Bruce’s very late double against Sheffield Wednesday – has caused the momentum law to enact itself a goal early. Pulling one goal back was enough to turn the tide, not any more.
On at least five occasions this season they have found themselves behind but looked incapable of figuring out a way back into the game. Naivety and a commendable refusal to lie down have made them fight on as best they can. However that has left them resembling a drunken gunslinger, his Smith and Wesson pilfered right out of his holster belt whilst he was cavorting with some buxom damsel.
Sir Alex Ferguson blamed that cavalier approach for October’s humiliating 6-1 home defeat to the ‘noisy neighbours’ saying “With 10 men we kept attacking – it was crazy football and ended up being an embarrassment.” Adding that, at 3-1 down, “We should have just said: ‘We’ve had our day’.”
It was quite an amazing change of heart from a man who takes such great pride in his team’s ‘never-say-die’ attitude. At home, with 10 minutes to go, his 10 men felt obliged to their paying public to chase an unlikely point and they were slaughtered. They suffered less in their other comeback failures this season but that they consistently came up short is just as shocking as the half dozen they shipped to City.
A month earlier, they led by two against Basle only to let the Swiss side regain parity, unheard of. Characteristically, United took a 3-2 lead in the 90th minute through Ashley Young only to be pegged back once more, two points that would cost them their place in the Champions League.
A month after the derby defeat they were found wanting in Europe again. Once more Old Trafford was the scene as United, with their aura fading fast, overturned an early Benfica lead only to have Darren Fletcher’s last goal instantly cancelled out. The Worst was yet to come.
Only a point was needed in Basle, yet they produced a most meagre performance – Phil Jones’ scrappy goal proving too little, and far too late, to turn the tide. Out of the Champions League, United’s pride was damaged. The goals began to flow again; results came easy, too easy. Confidence grew along with egos, egos which needed no more nourishment.
10 goals flooded in in two games, City had been reeled in and Wayne Rooney felt the need to celebrate. Ferguson will have been cursing his principles as Blackburn picked through the bones of a stadium and team operating at funeral pace on the great man’s 70th birthday.
Against Newcastle on Wednesday, despite their dominance of possession stats, they were outplayed from start to finish. Pedestrian in attack, they were undone by two fantastic goals from Demba Ba and Johann Cabaye. Only then, with Newcastle shutting up shop, did United raise the tempo and spend any prolonged term on the attack. Danny Simpson cleared a shot off the line, and Danny Welbeck passed to a flat-footed Park Ji Sung at the back post, yet there was never a single ominous moment for the Toon Army to seriously worry.
Even if Ferguson’s men had scraped in a goal, Leon Best was proving a major handful for Rio Ferdinand, holding the ball up well and allowing the hosts to leave their half almost at will.
The Manchester United aura is gone. From a distance those improbable turnarounds often appeared to occur by magic. That is exactly what each red jersey was looking for on Wednesday.
On Sunday, when that magic fails to materialise once again, the sky will be grey, the stands will be blue and the red shirts will cover shrugging shoulders which long for those heady days of summer and all those glorious comebacks.
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