Red Rebels: The New Manchester United

When the referee blew the final whistle, the television cameras stayed fixed on Mourinho.

He stood at the edge of his technical area in his familiar coat, collar turned up against the cold, staring at the pitch with his jaw clenched. His fists were tight at his sides, trembling slightly, not from the weather but from the anger he was forcing himself to contain.

The players came off one by one with their heads lowered.

None seemed eager to meet Mourinho's eyes.

They were furious themselves. It had been the kind of match capable of driving a footballer mad, and everyone in the side knew exactly how their manager must have felt after spending the entire ninety minutes watching it unfold.

Mourinho had every reason to be frustrated.

New Manchester United had controlled the match almost from the opening whistle. They dominated possession, dictated the territory and created chance after chance.

They hit the woodwork three times.

Sylvain Distin appeared to handle the ball inside the penalty area without punishment.

Another New Manchester United goal was ruled out for offside.

Statistically, the Red Rebels had been overwhelmingly superior.

Manchester City's only meaningful threat came from two speculative long-range efforts by Nicolas Anelka.

For almost the entire match, Van Gaal's side had been pinned back.

And yet the scoreboard never changed.

Manchester City 0-0 New Manchester United.

Some people would point out that the draw took New Manchester United's unbeaten Premier League run to 58 matches, equalling the legendary record set by Fabio Capello's AC Milan.

It should have been an extraordinary achievement.

Mourinho felt almost humiliated.

His team were better than Manchester City in virtually every department. They had more quality, greater understanding and far more control of the football.

Van Gaal had responded by refusing to play the kind of football everyone associated with him.

Apart from Anelka, almost every Manchester City player spent most of the match behind the ball.

They protected the central areas, closed the spaces between the lines and forced New Manchester United to attack through an increasingly crowded defensive block.

Was it ugly?

Perhaps.

But football did not award points for aesthetics.

The contrast between the two managers after the whistle said everything.

Van Gaal, so often associated with expansive attacking football, looked delighted with the draw.

Mourinho looked as though someone had personally insulted him.

Nobody around him could fully understand what the match meant to him.

He had wanted to beat Van Gaal.

Not merely because Manchester City were local rivals, and not merely because New Manchester United were chasing a record.

He wanted to prove something to the man who had once been his superior at Barcelona.

He was no longer the translator.

No longer the assistant.

He was José Mourinho, manager of the Premier League champions, the man who had just equalled one of European football's great unbeaten records.

But in his own mind, he had failed to prove it.

He did not blame the players.

Even through the frustration, Mourinho remained clear-headed enough to understand that they had done what he asked.

The mistake had been his.

He had misread Manchester City.

Van Gaal's football traditionally depended on positional discipline, movement and an almost obsessive use of space. His players needed to understand the system and commit to it completely.

Mourinho had therefore assumed that Van Gaal could not possibly impose his preferred game on a struggling Manchester City squad in only a few days.

That part had been correct.

What Mourinho had failed to anticipate was that Van Gaal would not even try.

He did not need Manchester City's players to understand the full complexity of his football.

He needed them to follow simple instructions.

Retreat.

Protect the dangerous spaces.

Stay compact.

Do not allow New Manchester United room between the lines.

Years earlier, Mourinho himself had used a brutally disciplined defensive strategy with a lower-league side to frustrate and defeat a Premier League opponent.

Now Van Gaal had turned the same basic principle against him.

A relegation-threatened Manchester City side had held the league leaders to a draw and, in doing so, cost them valuable ground at the top of the table.

For Van Gaal, the result was ideal.

It damaged a rival's momentum while immediately strengthening belief inside his own dressing room.

Mourinho almost wanted to hit something.

Then he saw Van Gaal approaching him with a smile.

He had intended to shake hands and behave professionally.

The moment he saw that expression, his irritation returned.

Mourinho gave a curt nod, turned and walked away.

Van Gaal watched him go.

"Still the same José," he murmured.

Had Mourinho heard him, perhaps he would have understood that remark better than he wanted to.

He did not.

December ended.

A new year began.

There had been plenty for New Manchester United to celebrate over the previous twelve months.

Beckham had won both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year.

The club had opened its new stadium.

They had equalled AC Milan's 58-match unbeaten league record.

Yet Mourinho could not shake the frustration of the Manchester City draw.

Nobody realised at the time that it was only the beginning.

New Manchester United's first league match of 2005 was at home to Fulham.

With the Christmas schedule taking its toll, Mourinho rotated several positions.

The Red Rebels played with energy and created enough chances to win comfortably.

They did not.

Once again, Edwin van der Sar became Fulham's saviour.

He made a series of outstanding stops, including two close-range saves in the first half.

Then Fulham were awarded a penalty after Curtis was judged to have fouled a striker inside the area.

The visitors converted.

0-1.

New Manchester United attacked relentlessly afterwards, but Van der Sar refused to be beaten.

Only in the closing stages did De Rossi finally break through, driving a long-range effort beyond the Dutch goalkeeper.

1-1.

The Red Rebels had rescued a point.

Curtis, however, was sent off late in the match, compounding another frustrating afternoon.

The media barely cared.

Instead, the headlines celebrated New Manchester United's 59th consecutive unbeaten league match.

They had surpassed Capello's Milan.

Mourinho was suddenly being described as the finest manager in world football.

At the time, Ethan was in the United States discussing business matters with Mark Davey and did not immediately recognise what was changing inside the team.

It was not complacency.

The players had not stopped caring.

They had not become lazy.

They were becoming anxious.

The tension had started after the Manchester City match and then spread through the squad.

Mourinho felt it.

The players felt it.

And gradually, it began to show both in training and on matchdays.

New Manchester United had lost some of the calm that had defined them.

Decisions became rushed.

Tackles arrived a fraction late.

Players tried to force attacks that previously would have been recycled.

Curtis's dismissal against Fulham was an early warning.

Most supporters dismissed it as an isolated incident.

Inside Newton Heath, some of the coaches were less certain.

On January 4, New Manchester United travelled to Newcastle.

The first half could hardly have gone better.

Villa scored.

Kaká scored.

At the interval, the Red Rebels led 2-0.

Then the second half began.

Newcastle attacked immediately, catching Mourinho's side cold.

Alan Shearer punished the first mistake.

Craig Bellamy punished the second.

Within five minutes, the score was 2-2.

New Manchester United responded furiously.

They poured forward in search of another goal, but the more desperately they chased it, the less composed they became.

Newcastle almost won the match themselves when Bellamy escaped on the counterattack, only for Čech to race from his line and make a crucial save.

Then, in the 76th minute, Essien was sent off.

Another red card.

Another match spiralling away from New Manchester United's control.

The final score remained 2-2.

Three consecutive league draws.

The unbeaten run had now reached 60 matches, and increasingly that record seemed to be the only positive anyone could find.

Soon even that disappeared.

New Manchester United survived the third round of the FA Cup in midweek, beating a League One side 4-2 with a heavily rotated team.

Even there, however, the younger players looked less assured than usual.

Outside observers began asking the obvious question.

What had happened to the most composed team in England?

The answer became even harder to ignore at Charlton.

Mourinho's side faced another opponent willing to defend deep and narrow.

Once again, the Red Rebels became impatient.

They dominated possession without creating enough clear openings.

Crosses were forced.

Shots were taken too early.

Attacks became increasingly frantic.

Then, in the 78th minute, Charlton broke forward.

One counterattack.

One goal.

1-0.

New Manchester United reacted almost desperately.

They had gone more than a year without losing a Premier League match.

Surely it could not end here.

Not against Charlton.

But every passing minute increased the pressure.

And the more anxious they became, the worse their decision-making grew.

Chances came and went.

Nothing went in.

The final whistle sounded.

Charlton 1-0 New Manchester United.

The unbeaten run was over.

Sixty league matches.

Some called it fate.

Charlton had been there near the beginning of the run.

Now they had ended it.

There was an echo of Capello's Milan in that too, a record eventually broken by an opponent few had expected to do it.

The timing could hardly have been worse.

While New Manchester United had gone four league matches without winning, Chelsea continued their excellent run.

Manchester City had also improved sharply after changing managers. Van Gaal's first four league matches produced two wins and two draws, lifting them away from the relegation places.

The newspapers immediately changed their narrative.

New Manchester United were collapsing.

Manchester City were rising.

Van Gaal was rebuilding them.

Mourinho was losing control.

Every headline increased the pressure.

The next league fixture offered no relief.

Anfield.

Liverpool.

And Benítez had just received exactly the kind of player he had been missing.

Pablo Aimar completed his move from Valencia shortly before the match.

He had only trained with Liverpool for two days.

Benítez started him anyway.

That alone showed how highly he valued the Argentine.

Aimar justified the decision.

At Anfield, he repeatedly found space between New Manchester United's midfield and defence.

Twice, moments of invention opened the Red Rebels apart.

Twice, Michael Owen finished.

Liverpool led 2-0.

New Manchester United briefly threatened a comeback when Beckham struck a long pass over the defence and Kaká converted.

2-1.

For a few minutes, there was hope.

It did not last.

Liverpool remained the better side.

The statistics were almost as worrying as the result.

New Manchester United were second best in possession, territory and chances.

The one category they clearly led was disciplinary trouble.

Seven yellow cards.

One sending-off after a second booking.

It was their third red card in four league matches.

Drogba's dismissal was particularly concerning, and there was already talk that he could face additional disciplinary action.

The problems did not end there.

Robben had gone into the match carrying a minor injury and was forced off before the end.

Scans afterwards revealed a torn muscle in his left thigh.

His season was over.

It was the most serious injury suffered by a New Manchester United player in years.

Liverpool 2-1 New Manchester United.

For the second consecutive season, the Red Rebels had lost at Anfield.

This time the consequences felt far more serious.

Manchester United had already moved above them into third.

Liverpool's recent winning run had brought them within two points as well.

New Manchester United, who had looked like the strongest team in England during the first half of the season, were suddenly clinging to fourth place.

The transformation was astonishing.

Only weeks earlier, they had seemed almost untouchable.

Now some newspapers were joking that, judged solely on their recent form, the defending champions looked more like relegation candidates.

Worse still, the poor results began exposing tensions that victory had previously concealed.

When a team was winning, minor frustrations disappeared beneath the surface.

When it stopped winning, every grievance became louder.

And New Manchester United's difficulties attracted attention far beyond Manchester.

The squad was still regarded as one of the greatest collections of young talent in Europe.

Rival clubs saw opportunity.

Premier League sides began making enquiries.

So did clubs abroad.

Ronaldo.

Messi.

Essien.

Others too.

Everyone knew New Manchester United possessed players who could define the next decade of European football.

And with Mourinho's team suddenly vulnerable, rival clubs began wondering whether some of them could be tempted away.

The first club to test that possibility was the one whose circumstances had changed most dramatically.

Manchester City.

(To be continued.)