At half-time on Tuesday night, Old Trafford was throwing green tennis balls at the pitch, Roma were 2-0 up and Michael Carrick looked one bad half from the sack. Forty-five minutes later, Manchester United had won 3-2 in the Champions League, their first win in ten games, and the fan YouTubers were trying to work out how to feel about it.
Matías Soulé scored after 11 minutes and Donyell Malen added a penalty six minutes later. Bruno Fernandes scored a retaken penalty just before the hour, then Matheus Cunha punished a Leonardo Balerdi error on 83 minutes and smashed in the winner from a tight angle three minutes later, from a Shea Lacey pass. Cunha was then sent off for a second yellow in stoppage time, because United were never going to make it easy.
Carrick: saved by the two players he had been leaving out
UnitedStand's Goldbridge landed on the irony early. "It's two players he's been ignoring that have saved him." Lacey, out of the picture for two months, came on and changed the game. Cunha had been benched since Rashford came back. He was not handing the coach much credit either. "The reason we were 2-0 down is because of Carrick and his bloody tactics," he said, before reserving his biggest thank you for Roma for refusing to park the bus at 2-0.
Lacey: start him against Villa
Thumbaldinho went from "delete the club, delete these players, delete the manager" at the break to Atalanta-under-Ole nostalgia at full time. His title makes the demand for Sunday plain: Lacey has to start against Aston Villa. He also rated the crowd, the protest balloons included, as much as anyone in a shirt. He is under no illusions, mind. Realistically, he said, United are still a mess.
UnitedViewTV made the same point more calmly. "Shea Lacey just came on and really helped change the game. You got to play him." Carrick, in their words, now has decisions to make, and sticking with favourites who have not delivered should not be one of them.
Dalot and a first half nobody wants to rewatch
Everybody had a go at the first half. Stretford Paddock called it a continuation of Bournemouth, Como and the second half at Chelsea, with Diogo Dalot at left-back "a comedy of errors". Harry Maguire's failure to clear was blamed for the penalty. Their bigger worry is what changed. Their answer is not tactics. "We got the rub of the green, and that's pretty much it." If one penalty is all it takes to switch these players on, they asked, where has that been all season?
Thumbaldinho was harsher on Dalot. Do not blame Ayden Heaven for the handball, he said, because Dalot was "the reason why we were two-nil down".
The red flags: one win, nine before it
Webby & O'Neill summed up the mood in one title: "What a comeback... but I'm not deluded!" No captions on that one yet, so no quotes, but that line is where most of these rooms ended up.
UnitedViewTV said it would "compartmentalise" the win and enjoy the night without reading too much into it. Goldbridge put the bigger question to his live chat: does this change anyone's mind on whether Carrick should stay?
That is the argument now. A comeback like this buys a head coach a few days and Villa at Old Trafford. It does not explain a first half where United could have been four down. Win on Sunday and Tuesday was a turning point. Lose and it was Roma being generous.