As liquid oxygen is to rockets so passion is to football teams, but disaster is always lurking where volatile fuels are channelled the wrong way. The outstanding recent example in football is Brazil 1-7 Germany in the 2014 World Cup. The hosts knew deep down that the Germans were better, but they believed that they could be battered into submission by Brazilian desire and Brazilian passion.
As the concrete skeleton of the Mineirão stadium shook to the roars of the Brazilian anthem it was almost possible to believe it. Half an hour later Brazil were 5-0 down. Germany seemed to be playing judo with their emotions, turning their energy against them, every Brazilian surge somehow boomeranging back in the form of a deadly German attack.
At Old Trafford yesterday Manchester United experienced their own Mineirazo. A weekend that started with Ronaldo giving a long interview explaining how completely unbothered he is by criticism ended with a case study in how ambient criticism affects the players and coaches and what happens out on the field.
The psychodrama started last week at Leicester, when Brendan Rodgers, revelling in his team’s 4-2 victory, strafed United with a casual drive-by: “Their central players weren’t pressing so we could be patient and work the ball through the pitch,” was Rodgers’ explanation for why his side had dominated the game.
United’s chaotic press was fodder for the punditry mills in the lead up to the Atalanta game on Wednesday night. In that match United survived a near-death experience, their desperate second-half onslaught enough to overpower the injury-hit visitors after they had trailed 2-0 at half-time. Ronaldo scored another glorious late winner, Bruno got two assists: United’s maligned central players were answering the critics.
But not silencing them. On BT Sport, Paul Scholes had hammered United’s first-half performance. At full time he was confronted with the fact of that stirring comeback: are you not entertained? Scholes didn’t back down.
“The first half really worried me. People are going to say I’m miserable, I’ll probably get slagged off by United fans. I looked at that game thinking about Liverpool on Sunday...In that first half United were all over the place. They were disjointed. They had the two midfield players playing on their own. Now, if you do that against Manchester City or Liverpool, half time, it’ll be three or four nil. You’ll be out of the game. You’re not coming back.”
Scholes was once described by Alex Ferguson as “a man of excellent opinions”, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer chose to ignore the nationally televised warning from his former team-mate.
Confidence
An hour before kick off came the incredible news that Solskjaer had picked the same XI that had started so badly against Atalanta. Ostensibly Solskjaer was signalling his confidence in the team that had finished so well against Atalanta: a bullish, attacking selection that announced, in his favourite slogan, “we are Man United”.
A less flattering interpretation was that this was cowardice masquerading as bravery. Solskjaer was using Wednesday’s result as cover to avoid making certain politically awkward but plainly necessary decisions.
In the Atalanta game Solskjaer had partnered Ronaldo with three other forwards who don’t track back, trusting that United could defend with six players. An injury-hit Atalanta wreaked enough havoc to suggest that using the same approach against a really strong side would be extremely risky.
It’s not as though Solskjaer doesn’t know how to win a match against a top side. The highlight of his time at United has been a series of unexpected wins against Manchester City: hard-running victories built on humility and self-sacrifice. Obviously you can’t play that way with a 36-year-old centre forward who doesn’t press.
But dropping Ronaldo is easier said than done. Imagine the reaction from fans, from pundits, from Alex Ferguson grumbling to MMA fighters in the directors’ lounge. How much easier simply to give in and choose to believe in Ronaldo’s supernatural powers?
This was surely one of those moments when the luxury ocean liner of self-delusion ploughs into the iceberg of reality
And so United’s manager closed his eyes to the warnings and allowed himself to be swept along by a dream. He spent Friday’s pre-match press conference praising Ronaldo’s relentless physical dynamism, his sprints, his metres covered, etc.
Asked immediately before the game what the key to winning it would be, Solskjaer said “to start on the front foot.” His boys were going out to attack.
After just a couple of minutes Mason Greenwood played Bruno in on goal, but he blasted over with a miss reminiscent of his penalty against Aston Villa: a thing that happens sometimes when his blood is up. Moments later Bruno charged fearlessly up field, leading a United press deep into Liverpool territory and urging team-mates forward to join him.
Control the ball
As Fernandes closed down Alisson, Mason Greenwood ran towards van Dijk, though the Liverpool defender had plenty of time to find Andy Robertson on the left. Robertson had time to control the ball, turn, look up and see Aaron Wan Bissaka running towards him, enthusiastically closing the distance yet failing to block off a simple pass up the line to Diogo Jota.
Victor Lindelof had come across to pressurise Jota, who found Roberto Firmino inside with a first-time pass. Harry Maguire was rushing out to mark Firmino, which meant that when Firmino knocked the ball past Maguire to Mohamed Salah, Luke Shaw was the last United player left defending a two-on-one break.
Salah was credited with the assist for Naby Keita, but really the goal had been created by United’s desperation. Challenged by Solskjaer to prove that they could press with the best of them, they exploded out of the blocks into a blood-headed lemming surge that left their own goal almost completely undefended.
Denmark’s Thomas Delaney once described playing against Ireland as “like trying to open a can of beans with your bare hands”. United were the can that opened itself.
The slaughter that followed will enter Liverpool legend. Salah’s hat-trick was the first by a visiting player at Old Trafford since Ronaldo Nazário in 2003, and the first ever in the Premier League era.
Solskjaer, for his part, suggested that “we’ve come too far as a group, we’re too close... to give up now”.
Close to where? What is the destination? This was surely one of those moments, like Brazil 1-7 Germany, when the luxury ocean liner of self-delusion ploughs into the iceberg of reality. The directionless drift of United under Solskjaer has been decisively exposed. Only they know how long they are prepared to drag out the charade.
