August 23 – Crisis, what crisis? After last week’s humiliation at Brentford, Manchester United and Erik Ten Hag responded with a moral-boosting 2-1 result against local rivals Liverpool, a victory that temporarily suppressed the growing unrest at Old Trafford and overshadowed the fans protesting against the Glazer club ownership.
Old Trafford had braced for extreme discontent by supporters, driven by a toxic distrust of the American owners of the club after a start to the season that has seen consecutive defeats to Brighton and Brentford.
But there was no repeat of some of last season’s dramatic scenes when the same fixture had to be called off with protestors storming the pitch.
This time protests were largely restricted to a large, pre-match march outside the stadium with calls of ‘We want Glazers out’, chants that were later repeated inside the stadium, even as Casemiro, United’s latest acquisition, was presented to the fans.
The Glazer family took over the Manchester club in 2005 and loaded £550 million of debt on to the club almost overnight. Recently, British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has expressed an interest in acquiring the club after Bloomberg reported that the Glazers would be prepared to sell.
But those sounds of discontent and anger were quickly drowned out when Jadon Sancho handed the hosts the lead in the 16th minute.
It was the kickstart of transformation and a boost for Ten Hag who had opened by leaving captain Harry Maguire and Ronaldo out of his starting XI.
Marcus Rashford doubled Manchester United’s lead after the break as a feeble-looking Liverpool could not live with United’s pace.
Liverpool were missing Thiago in midfield and a host of other players, but even as Mohamed Salah reduced the deficit with nine minutes left, Klopp’s team were never truly competitive.
The 2-1 result was Manchester United’s first victory of the season. They leapfrog Liverpool in the table and the 90 minutes were a foundation to build on for the troubled club. Ten Hag will have seen that there is enough quality to go forward, but football is a fickle game, not unlike the sport’s fans. The Glazer protests were muted, but for how long?
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