Tottenham roll the cube and money in on United’s sorry shrine to wasted cash | Jonathan Liew

Properly, Manchester United: right here’s your Wembley of the North. A number of years forward of schedule, and maybe not fairly as envisaged within the architects’ drawings, however note-perfect in most different respects. A retail temple with a soccer concession hooked up; a shrine to wasted cash; a floor the place the noise barely rises above a disgruntled murmur, and the place Tottenham really feel pleasantly at residence.

Afterwards, Erik ten Hag tried to keep up some semblance of dignity, like a plumber calmly filling out his bill whilst brown water sloshes round his knees. In spite of everything, this isn’t merely a job however an workplace, and even in moments of decay a sure carriage is demanded. “Is there a hearth drill?” the Tottenham followers gleefully requested as Outdated Trafford slowly emptied. There wasn’t. However the true factor is starting to really feel dangerously shut.

There’s, after all, a complete industrial advanced constructed across the thought of United being in disaster. Acid-tongued pundits, YouTube provocateurs, salty influencers, 24‑hour information channels: everybody has to place meals on the desk. Each defeat is by some means the worst ever, each dangerous efficiency by some means probably the most disgraceful in dwelling reminiscence, each setback parsed and deconstructed as proof of some important species illness, one that may solely actually be cured with some extra ritual bloodletting, a 3‑minute viral rant from Gary Neville and possibly a bit of extra unsourced dressing room gossip.

The extra prosaic fact is that United are nonetheless an imperfect, evolving facet who had been ambushed by an early purpose, a barely harsh crimson card and a extremely unconventional opponent. If something this was proof for withholding judgment slightly than expediting it: a type of unicorn sport performed underneath distinctive circumstances, in opposition to a maverick crew resembling no person else within the Premier League.

For Ange Postecoglou, this may occasionally properly have been probably the most spectacular win of his Spurs tenure. Not merely due to the magnitude of the opponent, the load of historical past, the late withdrawal of Son Heung‑min, however as a result of this was a sport they willed and bent into their very own bizarre form. United didn’t merely flip up dazed and disintegrated; largely they had been rendered that means by a stunning first-half efficiency that pressured them to doubt the whole lot.

Take the beginning lineup, which on the face of issues felt like a system impressed by the Garth Crooks “crew of the week” on the BBC web site: heavy in forwards and nearly completely devoid of midfield cowl, with Rodrigo Bentancur the only real protect behind James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, after which a entrance three forward of them. It felt both like a monumental gamble or a monumental ruse, and in a means it turned out to be each.

The sample was established within the opening seconds. Joshua Zirkzee and Bruno Fernandes fashioned a barrier in entrance of Bentancur, stopping Spurs from build up by means of him. So Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero merely rotated the ball aimlessly amongst themselves, whereas United congratulated themselves on a containing job properly achieved. Hey, it took you a decade and 7 completely different coaches, however you lastly realized to press!

However in actual fact United had been stepping right into a fastidiously laid lure. As a result of whereas United had been urgent and squeezing, whereas the gang had been starting to get , Tottenham had been quietly amassing numbers on the flanks. On the left, Timo Werner stayed excessive with Maddison and Future Udogie in attendance. On the precise, Pedro Porro fashioned one other battalion with Brennan Johnson and Kulusevski. The intention: to funnel the ball rapidly up the wing, burgle the second ball and break at tempo.

As ever with Postecoglou’s Spurs, this can be a thrilling excessive‑wire act. Lose the ball and greater than half your crew is out of place. Two minutes in, such a state of affairs left Marcus Rashford galloping clear with Alejandro Garnacho forward of him. One misunderstanding and one excellent run later, Van de Ven was squaring the ball for Johnson to attain.

That is how stupidly advantageous the margins are, how random the breaks. However the reward is having the ability to set the phrases of fight. United had been shaken after that, clutching at shadows, no matter plan they’d blown to shreds. Tottenham picked them off at will within the second half, and if Werner had shaken his unlucky behavior of lacking one-on-ones the scoreline might need been genuinely seismic.

However there was a lot to like, from the first-half ornamentation of Maddison to the second-half orchestration of Kulusevski, from the power of the tireless Dominic Solanke up entrance to the effervescence of the unfairly maligned Johnson alongside him, the sense of enchancment, the sense of a plan surreally coming collectively.

In fact that is the best way Spurs should play, the one means they can play. Order isn’t their good friend. Logic isn’t their good friend. Order means seventh place in perpetuity and always getting pecked away by richer rivals. Logic dictates that Postecoglou ought to nonetheless be teaching within the AFC Champions League. However the insanity, the keenness, the cult vibes, the excessive line: maybe that is how they flip the tables on the on line casino. It gained’t at all times work. However when it does, it can really feel suspiciously like salvation.