Long after Cristiano Ronaldo had secured a victory even Ole Gunnar Solskjaer considered lucky, there were several thousand Manchester United fans gathered where the Stretford End meets the players’ tunnel.
Perhaps appropriately, given how theatrical Ronaldo’s 95th-minute winner against Villarreal had been, they wanted a curtain call. In the Munich Tunnel, by the directors’ entrance, a United fan, wearing a Ronaldo shirt and with what seemed like a sound system built into his wheelchair, was playing “There’s a Whole Lotta Shaking Going On” at maximum volume.
When Ronaldo did emerge, his limousine was pursued by hundreds of supporters, camera phones above their heads, until the car disappeared into the anonymous roads full of warehouses and light industrial units that surround Old Trafford.
You had to remind yourself that this was September and Manchester United had won nothing more than a Champions League group fixture, one in which Solskjaer had nominated his goalkeeper, David de Gea, as man of the match.
That is to ignore what Ronaldo has brought to United. For the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, the biggest brand in world football has a player worthy of its self-image. Manchester United are glamorous once more.
There was something else; something more significant. The fans at the Stretford End were calling not just for Ronaldo, they were singing about their manager.
Inside Old Trafford, there is far more support for Solskjaer than there is outside the stadium, where the hashtag #OleOut surfaces on social media after every defeat. That includes the board, who since Ferguson’s departure have only sacked their manager when he has failed or looks likely to fail to qualify for the Champions League.
After three defeats in four games and a miserable tactical display in Bern, where Ronaldo had been substituted in a vain attempt to protect a draw, the crowd knew the kind of pressure that had been building around their manager.
“Sometimes the players we try to do our job but sometimes it is not possible,” Ronaldo remarked afterwards. “When the team is in a difficult moment, the fans need to push us. They gave us the momentum to keep going, keep running and keep believing.”
They were loud, they were intimidating and, significantly when Paco Alcacer gave Villarreal a lead they had earned several times over, they did not turn on their team as they had turned on sides managed by Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho.
It is partly because Solskjaer is “one of us” in a way his predecessors simply were not and it is partly because of the attacking style of his teams. After eight years in which the big prizes have gone to Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and even Leicester, the red half of the city craves something to believe in.
To put your belief in a 36-year-old who left his best days in Madrid and Turin does not sound much of a long-term plan but, given the barrenness of the recent past, it will do for now.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3AX5vGb
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