After all the bus-parking jibes Manchester United have copped over the last week the team coach was late at Huddersfield and the driver wasn’t the only one whose timing was off. Victor Lindelof arrived late in the game and showed just why some who have known Jose Mourinho for years have described him as the ‘most un-Mourinho of defenders’. The Swede hesitated for Aaron Mooy’s opener and his meek header was intercepted by Laurent Depoitre before he doubled Huddersfield’s lead. De Gea had only conceded two Premier League goals this season before Lindelof played any meaningful minutes at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Lindelof made his league debut with a cameo at Liverpool last week and is not ready to play a supporting role in the United side. Mourinho said Lindelof was ‘not ready’ to face Real Madrid in August and over two months on his status has not changed. The opposition on Saturday was a team who had scored twice in the league at home before Phil Jones was substituted, rather than the European champions. Jones beat the turf in frustration after he collapsed injured in the 23rd minute and on came Lindelof. Newly-signed United centre halves tend to struggle initially but that perspective is wearing thin with Lindelof, a £30million addition who is still deemed unsuitable for a game against a newly-promoted side. Nemanja Vidic’s teething problems were not that sore.
They gave everything to see it out. They were quick to the ball, strong in the challenge and utterly determined not to let the game have a dramatic, late twist. And, finally, Huddersfield Town, the team whose glories all belonged to another era, could soak up the euphoria of a win against Manchester United, their first since March 1952, and one of those joyous occasions when football reminds you of its ability to conjure up a rare kind of excitement.
The last time Huddersfield beat a team from Old Trafford, Manchester, came just a few weeks after Elizabeth II was pronounced Queen, in the same year that London was covered in its worst smog and some bright spark at the New Musical Express had the idea of printing the first-ever Top 40. Huddersfield were relegated that season and United won the league, Sir Matt Busby’s first title, despite a 3-2 defeat at Leeds Road. On this evidence, do not be too sure it will be the same again this season for either club.
José Mourinho made the same point when he seemed horrified that any side with title ambitions could be so feeble. His team, he said, had lost because one set of players had the correct attitude, and the other side did not, and it was noticeable that he took care not to make a scapegoat of Victor Lindelof on a harrowing day for the club’s £31m summer recruit.
