Perhaps the best single month in post-Ferguson Manchester United history was enough to coax Jason Wilcox out from the shadows to reluctantly explain how the “clear plan” at Old Trafford was bearing fruit.
The Director of Football shouldered a fraction of the public-facing responsibility Ruben Amorim carries every week, confirming a complete narrative volte-face for a club which had started the season with two wins from seven.
It took just three consecutive victories for the complexion to transform, for the hierarchy to toot their own horn, for Manchester United to go from perennial crisis to Champions League-adjacent. When the bar is lowered towards the core of the actual earth by accepting finishing 15th, any and all positives are magnified.
But as Wilcox said, one of the keys is to “not get too carried away when we win and not get too disappointed when we lose”. It remains to be seen quite what Manchester United do with a draw at Nottingham Forest in a game they should have won and could have lost.
It instinctively feels far more like a point gained than two dropped. The Manchester United of last season would probably lose that game. There is clear development in the mentality and character required to go from a position of relative comfort to a sudden and total collapse.
Casemiro scored from another Dyche-infuriating corner that never was and the visitors seemed in control. Forest had threatened but Luke Shaw in particular was excellent.
Then half time happened. Forest scored twice within the restart as Manchester United crumbled under a couple of high crosses. Morgan Gibbs-White headed in the equaliser to finish a sublime move, before Nicolo Savona nipped in to capitalise on some haphazard defending.
In those moments it is difficult to blame the manager; these were specifically individual player errors. Amad was weak in challenging Gibbs-White, and Diogo Dalot compounded playing Savona onside with reacting far too late to the danger. Amorim has deserved the blame for most of his 19 defeats in a year, but would have ranked far down the list of culprits for his 20th.
That such finger-pointing was ultimately never needed is testament to the power of momentum. It swung so abruptly and violently in Forest’s favour at the start of the second half, but was also something Manchester United could harness once the shock wore off. While the winning streak is over, the confidence and conviction which came from it was evident in the final half an hour.
Amad levelled with a stunning volley and almost secured a stirring win with another effort Murillo blocked on the line in stoppage time. But a chaotic draw in a game with 35 shots almost perfectly equally split between two flawed yet improving teams was a fair result on the balance of play.
Manchester United are a work in progress – left wing-back is becoming a problem position and the expensive assortment of forwards signed this summer need to establish more consistency – but that progress is finally clear to see. A result and performance which won’t lead anyone to “get too carried away” nor “too disappointed” is no bad thing.
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