Winners gonna win

Varane, Casemiro and Martinez have changed United's mentality

FIVE ASIDES Europa League: United 2, Barcelona 1 (agg: 4-3)

Erik ten Hag’s biggest win so far at United was inspired by United’s biggest winners. Between them, Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane and Casemiro have won two World Cups, two Copas America, nine Champions Leagues and eight league titles. They have given United spine but also soul, and their winning mentality is infecting the entire club. The Europa League should be beneath them, yet they played – and celebrated – like it was the important thing on earth. Martinez is a 21st-century version of Gary Cooper - the strong, loud type - and nothing summed up United’s spirit quite like the desperate, decisive blocks that Casemiro and Varane made at the end of each half. It wasn’t the first time this season that Old Trafford has ached to hear the final whistle. That’s the thing about living on the edge; if you survive, you usually have a helluva tale to tell.

Antony’s winning goal was the 19th from a United substitute this season, apparently the most by any club in Europe’s big five leagues. Not bad for a squad whose depth we have all questioned at one time or another. [Except me – Ed.] It’s a permanent-marker tick for Ten Hag, whose bold substitutions and tactical switches are becoming the defining feature of the season. He did it again last night when he brought on Antony for Wout Weghorst at half-time and moved the rest of the front four – Marcus Rashford from LW to CF, Bruno Fernandes from RW to No10 and Jadon Sancho from No10 to LW. It’s a football form of hotdesking, except it’s usually designed to create space rather than maximise it. You could argue that Ten Hag got it wrong at the start – Rashford up front against Barcelona, even at home, makes the most sense – but he still gets credit for the decisiveness with which he acted changed the game before it was too late. He has a poker face and a chess brain.

Before football’s globalisation, it would have sounded like a jogo bonito fantasy. United come from behind to beat Barcelona 2-1 with both goals scored by Brazilians. The reality was more complicated. Fred and Antony are among United’s most maligned figures, understandably so given their often exasperating decision-making, but they both have one quality that is mandatory for a United player: moral courage. They never hide, no matter how badly they are playing or how many groans they hear from the home crowd. To use Roy Keane’s phrase, they want the ball when they don’t want the ball. Sometimes Fred wants the ball when we really don’t want him to want it, particularly if he is facing his own goal in the defensive third. Last night, he wanted the ball when it wasn’t meant for him – Fernandes’s pass was hit so hard that it was surely intended for Antony, but Fred intercepted it with a velvet touch and then shinned it past Marc ter Stegen with a weird kind of precision.

That goal was very Fred: he is one of the most confusing players in United’s history. At times he is best watched from behind the house, never mind the sofa, but his finest performances usually come in the biggest games: City away in 2019-20, Liverpool away in the same season, when he was immense against an irresistible force, Spurs at home in October, the last leg and a half against Barcelona. He has boundless energy, irrepressible spirit and the ability to neutralise the best ball player on the other side, in this case the silky Frankie de Jong. Now, thanks to Ten Hag, Fred has a nickname: the mosquito. He’ll still be a pain in the arse at times, as insects tend to be. But his attitude and, a-hem, unusual skillset make him a worthwhile irritant. He turns 30 next month, so we might as well accept he’s here for life and start giving him a bit of love.

And now for something completely different. United will play Real Betis in the last 16, the first competitive meeting between the sides – even if it feels like they should have met in the second group stage of the Champions League in the early 2000s (Joaquin, who is still in the Betis squad at the age of 41, would have been playing then too). Betis are fifth in La Liga and won away to Roma during the group stage, but their strong defensive record has gone to seed in recent weeks. The schedule may well catch up with United eventually; for now, Betis are nothing to fear. Nor, with the possible exception of Arsenal, are the other 14 teams left in the tournament. The toughest fixture was the one United have just won.

Rob Smyth is a sportswriter for The Guardian and co-founder of United Writing. He also writes occasionally at ntzr.substack.com