MANCHESTER // Welcome back, Manchester United. This was a return to the past. It wasn’t the ponderous, poor side that Louis van Gaal claimed were students of his philosophy. Nor was it the wretched, rigid team David Moyes had stuck in a straitjacket. United played with speed, style and a swagger. Those were qualities Sir Alex Ferguson imbued for two decades until the slowness of his late-period sides provided early evidence of the precipitous decline that followed his retirement.
The tormenting of Tottenham was orchestrated by rewinding the clock. United played with pace and width, the prerequisites in their glory days. Perhaps it was a one-off, perhaps a sign of things to come, but they seemed the opposite of Van Gaal’s United, who were an unenviable contradiction, a sideways-passing side who looked for their goalkeeper too often and yet played too many long balls.
The difference was highlighted by Marouane Fellaini’s opening goal. Michael Carrick’s penetrative forward pass indicated United need not aim for the clouds to get the ball into the penalty area. It was the work of a craftsman. Carrick directed play with masterly assurance, his intelligence apparent even in a header. His goal was angled into the one place where Hugo Lloris could not save it. United could savour a role reversal; condemned to defeat on Monday by a player, Danny Welbeck, facing his former club, they saw an old Spur choreograph the crushing of Tottenham.
Carrick has lent purpose; that is not necessarily the same as urgency. There is an air of deliberation about whatever he does. The paradox of a pacier performance was that two of United’s slowest players were pivotal. Perhaps injuries and suspensions forced Van Gaal’s hand, but the recalls of Carrick and Juan Mata were crucial.
The Spaniard had only played 23 minutes of football in United’s previous seven games, a criminal waste of a considerable talent. The ovation when Mata was replaced was a loud indication of appreciation for a maestro who has been undervalued by his manager. The two outfield players who are the unlikely beneficiaries of Van Gaal’s appointment, Fellaini and Ashley Young, each exerted an influence, with the Englishman hugging the touchline and plaguing a full-back in the manner of the current assistant manager. Indeed, given United’s retro approach, this inspired questions whether it was a performance influenced more by Van Gaal or his second in command, Ryan Giggs
For all the Dutchman’s persistent talk of a philosophy, this was seemed less a masterplan than a case of things falling into place. For two months, Wayne Rooney was stationed in midfield. The captain has been revitalised by a return to his proper position. His hunger for goals was apparent, his desire evident in a defensive header with five minutes remaining and a three-goal lead. He is an old-fashioned, all-action player: once again, the sight of a rampaging Rooney brought an anachronistic feel to proceedings.
So, too, did the scoreline. The visit of Tottenham used to represent a guarantee of a home win for United. They went 23 years without victory at Old Trafford before a 2012 triumph. They had recorded back-to-back successes but this felt a reversion to type. For all the talk of a brave new world under Mauricio Pochettino, this felt like the Tottenham of old.
The symbolic moment occurred in the final few minutes when Harry Kane, the personification of Pochettino’s young team, slipped and landed on his backside as he tried to score, David Beckham-style, from 50 yards. Tottenham slipped up, too.
A match of extremes was arguably United’s best performance under Van Gaal and, Mauricio Pochettino felt, perhaps Spurs’ worst in his reign. Van Gaal’s task is to turn the anomaly into the norm, the exception into the standard. Because despite his reputation as a revolutionary, the Dutchman’s duties are not to reinvent the United wheel, but to get it turning at greater speed. As they took a quicker route forward, they accelerated on the road to the Champions League.
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