When Harry hugged André
How a row between two United stars turned into the beginning of a rom-com
COMMENT Champions League: United 1, FC Copenhagen 0
After becoming United’s goalkeeper last summer, one of the first things André Onana did was to give Harry Maguire a bollocking. Goalies are allowed to shout at defenders, but this was misjudged. Maguire had just been sacked as United’s captain. Onana was the new boy, trying a little too hard to assert himself. It was only a pre-season friendly, and Maguire’s misdemeanour was more of a misunderstanding when it came to passing out from the back, a process that defeats most players at some point. Onana, who had been signed largely for his ability with his feet, put a foot wrong by kicking a man when he was down.
What looked like a faux pas has now come to resemble the sort of moment you often see early on in a rom-com, when the couple who will end up in each other's arms begin by rubbing each other up the wrong way. Three months later, Maguire and Onana found themselves co-starring in an improbable drama: United’s vital victory over FC Copenhagen.
Maguire had scored the goal that looked like being the winner, right up to the 95th minute. Then Scott McTominay conceded his second penalty in four nights, and Onana was all that stood between United and a demoralising draw. He rose to the challenge, flying so far across towards his left-hand post that he saved Jordan Larssen’s shot with his right hand.
Onana, naturally, was engulfed by his team mates. Maguire could have been forgiven for holding back, but there he was, in the eye of the swarm. He was one of the first to give Onana a hug and he looked as if he meant it. It was big of him. He had let bygones be bygones, just as he has had to in his relationship with Erik ten Hag. And as Ten Hag has done with him too - in this game, after long insisting that Maguire could only play on the right of the centre-back pairing, Ten Hag let him go on the left.
Last season Maguire found himself relegated to fifth-choice centre-back, behind Rapha Varane, Lisandro Martinez, Victor Lindelof and even Luke Shaw. Now, with Martinez and Shaw injured, he is in the top two. He is back to his best, still on the slow side but using that formidable head of his to step in, spot a forward pass, and get involved in goals. Against Brentford, he not only supplied the cushioned header from which McTominay nodded in the winner, he also won the free kick that started that move.
United are now on a winning streak. After losing six of their first ten games in all competitions, they’ve won the last three. As streaks go, it’s been streaky: if all three games had been drawn, we would not have had much cause for complaint. United have won so many games by a single goal this season that the Manchester Evening News, normally so on the ball, keeps saying that all their victories came by that margin and forgetting the lone rout, the 3-0 cruise against Palace in the League Cup.
Still, something keeps getting them over the line, and it looks very much like character. The determination of McTominay, the self-confidence of Onana, the resilience of Maguire, and the composure of Christian Eriksen, United’s new supersub. These are big personalities, big enough to lay on a big moment for a big club.
The streak has every chance of ending on Sunday, when United entertain City. If they start the way they did against Sheffield United and Copenhagen - dozy and disjointed - they will be lucky to avoid a drubbing. But their season won't hinge on that match, cheering though it would be if they somehow got something from it. It’s more important to make sure they win the three league games that follow the derby - away to Fulham, home to Luton and away to Everton. Then they’ll have 24 points from 13 games and be within shouting distance of the top four.