It Looks As If The Real Manchester United Are Back For Christmas

CONFESSION TIME – I have, as 2018 has unfolded before us in all its awfulness, rather fallen out of love with fitba. Maybe it has been a hangover from Brexit; how can you get involved in football when, out in the real world, there is a genuine crisis going on.

 If yesterday is any guide, he will not be missed

Any way, just in time for Christmas, I saw possible salvation. This came when I watched the Manchester United v Cardiff City game last night. It fairly restored my faith in the beautiful game, to watch United take Cardiff apart. OK, it was only Cardiff, but, over those 90 minutes, the United squad rediscovered the swagger which had been squeezed out of their game by the Chosen One, over his three-year reign of terror.

I never saw Mourinho and United as a good fit. He has never encouraged or espoused the vibrant attacking football which is demanded of the repertory company inside the Theatre of Dreams. The Portuguese's mantra has always seemed to me to be: “We win 1-0,” whereas the United dictum has been: “OK, you score three, we will score four.”

That said, it cannot be easy being a United player. Even Paul Pogba, for all it cost United £89.3 million to bring him back from Juventus; will never be considered the best player to wear the number 6 United shirt – so long as there is someone alive who saw Duncan Edwards play.

 Paul Pogba

He's a good player, but, I still reckon this guy would be most people's first pick for the number 6 shirt in any Manchester United dream team.

 Duncan Edwards

 

Alexis Sanchez isn't a bad player, but, he just happens to have inherited the number 7 shirt once worn by George Best, (who also of course wore 11), Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo, to name but three. David De Gea is touted as possibly the best goalkeeper in the world – but, so too were Harry Gregg and Peter Schmeichel before him.

Some day, they might erect a statue of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Romelu Lukaku – but, will they ever match the legend of the original golden trio of Best, Charlton and Law?

They are standing on the shoulders of giants, yes, but, today's United players still have an awful lot of history – from the 1948 cup-winning team of Carey, Delaney and Co, via the Busby Babes, to the side with the “Holy Trinity” on-board, and on to the “Boys of '92” - bearing down on them.

And yes, it was: “only Cardiff,” but, to those of us who have a soft spot for watching an attacking Manchester United team going full pelt for goals – yesterday was a welcome ray of sunshine in what has been a mainly dark season.

HUGHIE McILVANNEY once reckoned Ali v Frasier, both in wheel-chairs, in an old people's home, would still be one hell of a fight. There would not be the athleticism of the Fight of the Century, or the Thrilla in Manila, but, there sheer competitiveness would still have made it interesting.

Hugh McIlvanney

So, bearing that in mind – the Scottish Premiership, quality-wise, might currently be shite, but, by God, this season is the most-interesting in a long time. I know the Lap Top Loyal and the Celtic-Minded sects within the Scottish Football Writers Association are duty-bound to try to con us into believing the quality of the Bigot Brothers' squads, but, the reality is, as is shown by the league table, they are no better than the “Diddy Teams” they are forced to play against.

I have long felt, if a provincial club manager in Scotland is ever able to persuade his players: “It doesn't matter how we get on against the Old Firm – but, if we can beat everyone else, the chances are, we will win the league;” then that manager could well succeed.

In accumulating seven straight league titles, Celtic's average accrual of available points has averaged 79.8% of those available. In 2016-17, they won 106 points out of an available 114 (38x3). That has been their best show of the seven, their worst was season 2012-13, when they took the title, with 79 points – 69.3% of those available.

The eight games against the Old Firm account for 21.05% of the available points; so, had any of the other ten clubs concentrated on beating every team, other than the Old Firm, and succeeded, then they would have won the league in three of the last seven seasons. The percentage of points available in games not involving the Old Firm, almost exactly equates to the average number of league-winning points accrued by Celtic during their current run of seven in a row.

It could also be argued that a team used to beating everyone else, would surely be capable of taking points, at least at home, against the Old Firm. Something there for managers to perhaps try to get their heads round.

Of course, so used are we to the big two winning, I sometimes think they are already 1-0 up when they kick-off against provincial opponents. A similar degree of expectation comes into play with the other sides. They might approach a game against one or other of the Old Firm with hope rather than expectation of victory, whereas, against any other of the provincial sides, it is expectation rather than hope which is uppermost in the players' minds.

I feel things are levelling-off in the Premiership this season. It is certainly the most-competitive it has been in years, with, almost at the half-way stage, four points separating first and fourth. I sense, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock can maintain the pressure on the OF up until and hopefully after the split. That would be marvellous.

We now have a three tier top flight, with the top four split by those four points. Tier two also contains four teams: Hearts, Hibs, Livingston and St Johnstone – split by just two points, while at the bottom Motherwell, Hamilton, St Mirren and Dundee are involved in a dog fight for survival.

The football might not be top drawer, but, the excitement and uncertainty surely is, and long may it continue like this.