Manchester United finally clinched all three points at Old Trafford in the Premier League with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Ipswich Town on Wednesday.
It was more impressive as the victory came despite the Red Devils playing for over 50 minutes down to 10 men after Patrick Dorgu was shown a straight red.
The visitors took the lead after a calamitous mix-up at the back between the January signing and Andre Onana. Why the Cameroonian had to rush off his line with the wingback under no pressure made no sense whatsoever.
But despite the error, the 20-year-old did not let it affect his game and he bombed forward at will and was not afraid to put in dangerous crosses into the box unlike Diogo Dalot, whose decision-making was suspect once again.
Set-piece key to United win
The hosts equalised through an own goal before Matthijs de Ligt scored their second. But soon after Dorgu’s red, Onana was once again at fault as he allowed an innocuous ball into the box to nestle into the net.
With the 20-time English league champions down by a man, fans must have feared the worst but United, contrary to expectations, were quicker off the blocks in the second half as Harry Maguire scored the winner.
Even more surprisingly, all three goals on the night came from set-pieces. United have been notoriously bad at converting set-pieces but not on Wednesday.
Bruno Fernandes’ deliveries were inch-perfect and the way the centre-backs attacked the box seemed like it was well rehearsed, and hopefully this will continue in the games to come.
As for the red card, yes Dorgu did catch Omari Hutchinson high up on his left leg but when viewing in slow-motion every challenge looks worse than it is.
There was no malicious intent whatsoever and he did get a touch on the ball first before his momentum meant he clattered into the Ipswich man.
The Denmark international is still raw and looking back, he will probably have tackled the situation differently but the incident must be looked at with context.
VAR and ref bound to show Dorgu red after what transpired at Goodison
United had escaped Goodison Park with a point after VAR and the referee opted to wipe away their earlier penalty call for a clear dive from Ashley Young in the box.
What followed was a barrage of criticism by former players, pundit, journalists and even ex-referees with everyone pointing to how lucky United got on the day.
After a week of such discourse, VAR and the referee was bound to be swayed and a direct red card followed. Was it a bad tackle? Sure. But again, there have been way worse tackles in the league with malicious intent but VAR has never got involved.
Unfortunately for all of them, United still escaped with all three points against the Tractor Boys. The referee booked almost all United players for minor misdemeanors on the day, almost as if trying to get another player off.
So maybe VAR and the referees might try to affect another game of ours negatively and Amorim must tell the players to be more smart when dealing with confrontations on the pitch. A siege mentality must ensue. After all, this is United — hated, adored but never ignored!
Feature image Alex Livesey via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
