MANCHESTER — It was one of the weirdest scenes of a strange season at Manchester United. Moments after sealing a 5-2 Carabao Cup win against Leicester City at Old Trafford in the first game following the firing of manager Erik ten Hag, the players performed a lap of honour before leaving the pitch.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, the interim head coach, was already back in the dressing-room, having made a brief diversion to applaud the fans and celebrate the win with clenched fists before heading up the players’ tunnel.
But despite being 14th in the Premier League and with yet another manager paying the price for their failure to perform, the players made sure they milked every second of applause as they saluted the four sides of the stadium.
Perhaps they were just desperate for some adulation and to enjoy a rare moment of success this season. Never mind that it was a comfortable win against a half-strength Leicester side — any win will do for United these days.
“All of a sudden we had some luck on our side,” Van Nistelrooy said. “That made it a great day today.”
But as United wait for Ruben Amorim, the Sporting CP coach, to confirm his departure from the Portuguese champions in order to replace Ten Hag — United are in talks with Sporting over a deal to secure his release having triggered his €10 million release clause — Van Nistelrooy and the players did their bit to paint a picture normality following Ten Hag’s exit.
It’s usually the same story when a manager is fired. The team gets an immediate bounce and boost of morale that is enough to seal a much-needed win, but more often than not, it proves to be an illusion. The failings that led to the previous manager being sacked soon return and the new manager quickly discovers that the job they have walked into was made vacant for the simple reason that the players didn’t perform often enough.
That is the harsh reality of Manchester United right now. In truth, it has been pretty much the same since Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager in 2013 after delivering 13 Premier League titles in 20 years.
That Van Nistelrooy became the ninth manager to take charge of team selection at United since Ferguson stepped down is a damning statistic. Ten Hag was the fifth permanent manager to lose his job at United since Ferguson’s exit, with Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick and Ralf Rangnick all taking charge temporarily prior to Van Nistelrooy’s stint in the hot-seat.
It may be one game only for Van Nistelrooy if United are able to get Amorim signed and sealed before the home game against Chelsea on Sunday, but the likelihood is that the former PSV Eindhoven coach will still be at the helm this weekend due to sources telling ESPN that “patience” will be needed before negotiations with Sporting reach a conclusion.
But at least Van Nistelrooy oversaw a victory — only United’s fifth this season. Ten Hag’s dismal record this campaign was the reason for his dismissal, but even though his tactics and selections became increasingly unpredictable, there is no question that many of his players drastically underperformed and contributed to him losing his job.
Don’t be fooled into believing that this win was evidence that United are ready to turn a corner, however.
Yes, Casemiro gave his best performance of the season, scoring twice and helping to create another, and captain Bruno Fernandes was also impressive.
But Leicester’s two goals, from Bilal El Khannouss and Conor Coady, exposed United’s defensive issues once again and there plenty of other moments when Steve Cooper’s team created chances and could have scored more goals. The two occasions that Jordan Ayew easily dispossessed Victor Lindelöf and Manuel Ugarte will have alarmed Van Nistelrooy, and will worry Amorim when he gets to watch the playback of this game.
This is an imbalanced United squad, but its players are certainly capable of doing much better.
They may even continue their revival with a win against Chelsea at the weekend, but if, or when, Amorim takes charge, he would be wise to be wary of trusting this group of players to deliver on a consistent basis. They did not do that for Ten Hag and the evidence of 90 minutes against Leicester is not enough to suggest that Van Nistelrooy has found a missing ingredient.
There were no major team changes and no tinkering with tactics. It was the same players and formation that had delivered so many bad results and performances for Ten Hag, so it will need much more than this to convince anyone that United are suddenly set for a surge up the table now that Ten Hag has gone.
Amorim will know that. He will watch United’s games, study the data and work out which players can survive the new regime, and which are past their use-by date.
But at least United won. Casemiro will be happy with his two goals, as will Fernandes who also scored twice, with Alejandro Garnacho netting United’s other.
This game did not offer a clear picture of the state of United, though, and that had nothing to do with the mist that hovered over Old Trafford on Wednesday.