Football Daily | Manchester United’s unlikely one-match winning streak and hard-to-please fans

DO CALL IT A COMEBACK Considering they’d just gone nine games without a win, assorted Manchester United fans carping about the manner of their team’s Bigger Cup win over Roma on shouty radio phone-ins on Tuesday night struck Football Daily as the type who’d complain about a firefighter refusing to wipe their boots at the front door before rescuing them from a burning house. Yes, it’s true that United played appallingly in the first half and were lucky to be only 2-0 down. And yes, the penalty was somewhat fortuitous against a knack-ravaged Serie A side who have form in coughing up two-goal leads in the competition. However, when your once mighty side has spent the opening months of the season looking more like a broken washing machine full of spanners falling down an escalator than an elite football team, complaining about the artistic merit of a highly unlikely comeback win seems unnecessarily churlish, even if Matheus Cunha’s celebration of the winner was a little over the top.

United were well represented on Amazon Prime’s coverage, with club alumni Nicky Butt, Ashley Young and Wayne Rooney all present to offer their views which reflected a performance of two incredibly contrasting halves. During the break the trio understandably got the collective funk on over their former side’s timidity, cowardice, and lack of ideas, confidence and belief but less than an hour later they were whistling a far happier tune.

“The second half was amazing, they were front-footed and they deserved to win the game in the end,” cheered Rooney in his post-match analysis. “The first half was terrible, but we saw the passion and fight we wanted in the second half. The crowd got right behind the team and you felt like they could go on to win the game.” While most in the Old Trafford crowd gave the team their full support, the cameras did inevitably cut to ashen-faced club blazers Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada half-heartedly applauding their team with all the enthusiasm of dinner party hosts forcing a smile as the cat proudly drops a dead mouse on the cheeseboard.

With United now on an unlikely one-match winning streak, much of the post-match discourse focused on what this win might mean for Michael Carrick’s future as head coach. Widely regarded as a dead man walking before the game, he may well have bought himself a stay of execution and a scenic detour to the gallows. A pardon seems unlikely but another home win against Aston Villa on Sunday would further endear him to fans who really want him to succeed. It would also make life extremely difficult for his increasingly unpopular employers before an international break they had almost certainly boxed off as the ideal time to hand him his P45.

QUOTE OF THE DAY “For Real Madrid and for all Madridismo it is a great pride that a figure of his sporting and human dimension, a benchmark in Spanish and world sport, becomes part of our board of directors and contributes, from this responsibility, to the present and future of our club” – there’s a new man on the Real Madrid board – and it’s 22-times grand slam-winning tennis legend Rafael Nadal. It’ll make for some interesting family chat when he next sees his uncle, the former Barça stalwart Miguel Ángel Nadal.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Join Simon Burnton at 5.45pm GMT for red-hot MBM coverage of Fenerbahce 0-2 Liverpool, while Dominic Booth will be on hand at 8pm with a Bigger Cup clockwatch taking in the goals from RB Leipzig 0-2 Manchester City and Slavia Prague 0-2 Arsenal.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS Roma managed to capitulate to Manchester United while being 2-0 up. Even Man Utd haven’t managed to do that too many times but I wouldn’t describe their second half performance as ‘a comeback for the ages’. Their opponents just didn’t turn up” – Nigel Sanders.

These suggestions of paper and velcro shirts seem overly complicated. (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). If teams would just commit to using body paint instead of clothing, the foul becomes impossible to commit unless a defender is possessed of both long fingernails and a cavalier disregard for the health of their opponent. Also, no more tedious yellow cards for removing the shirt after a goal. Win win” – Ben Mimmack.

Poor Nuno can take comfort that he’s in a long list of managers seen off by a poor result against West Brom since 2010, including Chris Hughton twice and five others. If you add Roberto di Matteo (he clung on for one more game) and spoiling Alex Ferguson’s leaving do with a 5-5 draw we were responsible for nine dismissals in seven years between 2010 and 2017. I think that’s pretty impressive. We’ve been quiet since then but perhaps we’re going for another run – championship managers beware” – Tom Levesley.

Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day goes to … Ben Mimmack, who wins a copy of Programmes! by Richard Crooks. It’s out now and available to buy on the Pitch Publishing website. Terms and conditions for our competitions are here.

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