Michael Carrick’s Man Utd future thrown into doubt by two insane Newcastle interventions | OneFootball

Michael Carrick is in the midst of 17 games to stake his claim to the Manchester United job, but have two minutes at Newcastle done substantial harm to his prospects?

Interim manager Carrick took United to his native North-East on the back of a seven-game unbeaten run that has catapulted the Red Devils to third place in the Premier League and good bets for a Champions League spot.

Indeed, United had a great opportunity to solidify their hold on third in the wake of Liverpool going down at Wolves and Aston Villa receiving a hiding at home to Chelsea.

The Magpies’ fortunes of late have contrasted sharply with United, with the two sides going into the contest at opposite ends of the form table. And things seemed to get worse when Jacob Ramsey received a second yellow card towards the end of the first half. Simulation? Not for me, Jeff.

That perceived injustice seemed to galvanise Newcastle. The Red Devils already appeared sluggish and they had few answers to their hosts’ intensity, even if they responded swiftly to Anthony Gordon’s opener from the spot with Casemiro’s equaliser, both goals coming in first-half stoppage time.

By the time 44 minutes of the second half had elapsed, Newcastle could reasonably claim to have been the better team despite being a man light. Manchester United seemed to rouse themselves slightly in the later stages but their passing was slow and, other than Bruno Fernandes, few of Carrick’s troops seemed intent to grasp the opportunity presented to them by results elsewhere.

Aside from the odd moment, the second half passed off without much incident until minute 89…

89:00 – Aaron Ramsdale’s save of the season contender

Ramsdale had already offered a good account of himself on a big night for the ex-England goalkeeper. He was brought in to start at the expense of Nick Pope, who was made to sit and watch after his latest fumble against Everton on Saturday. It’s a tricky predicament for a keeper: Ramsdale couldn’t possibly make himself No.1 with a good game; but a bad game could have killed his hopes of becoming Eddie Howe’s first choice.

Ramsdale has spoken before of his struggles to concentrate fully for 90 minutes – a bit too honest, perhaps – so this was an ideal game for the ex-Arsenal stopper. Manchester United were hardly creating chances at will, but they probed enough to keep Ramsdale alert.

Most of United’s approach play took them down dead ends and straight into a black and white wall, which was perhaps in Joshua Zirkzee’s mind when he took the ball on the half turn, 30 yards from goal, right of centre. Rather than play wide to Amad Diallo, Zirkzee took the ‘f*** it’ approach and unleashed a swazzer bound for the near top corner.

Ramsdale had clear sight of the ball from the moment it left Zirkzee’s right boot, but the movement on the shot rendered him almost a spectator until the final split seconds. Any big steps or over-eagerness in his movement could have killed the keeper, such was the unpredictability of the flight.

With only a window for a micro-step and little time to load up the left leg, Ramsdale’s positioning had to be on point. His timing too. A take-off delayed by only a split-second might have put fingers on the ball but the power from Zirkzee necessitated more substantial resistance.

Ramsdale is only a size 8 glove – the Arsenal kitman would have had no bother telling his apart from David Raya’s big-foam-finger-sized mitts – but the precision-timed spring to his left put a full palm behind the ball, his rigid wrist the immoveable force in the face of what appeared an unstoppable object.

With Ramsdale having to arch back somewhat on his approach, we’ve seen plenty of those come off the keeper and into the roof of the net. Sometimes the power on the ball works in the keeper’s favour, but rarely when it requires clawing out. The power it took to keep Newcastle level was sourced from every muscle fibre, and it surely required a similar effort to resist the urge to celebrate a stunning save at a crucial moment – for player and club. No matter, he didn’t know it at the time but Ramsdale was only a minute or so from letting loose…

90:00: William Osula’s goal of the season contender

Manchester United failed to trouble Ramsdale with the subsequent corner then faffed while attempting to recycle, instead turning over the ball to Osula tracking back to take it off Bruno Fernandes’ toes.

Osula, 30 yards from his own goal with Tyrell Malacia in his vicinity, dropped it off to Kieran Trippier. And he was off.

It was never a fair race. Osula hasn’t played much this season but he’s had enough time to establish himself as one of the quickest players in the Premier League. Malacia, as a full-back sub of last resort, has played even less and even with a head start and a straighter line to the finish, he struggled to keep Osula in view.

Would anyone else out there in black and white have kept Trippier’s pass in play? Osula, as well as rapid, was fresh. Most of his team-mates were knackered, 10 men having done the running of at least 11. Malacia too was fresh-ish. Rested, though, perhaps to the point of seizing up.

We enjoyed Harry Maguire being tempted out of his central berth briefly before clocking Osula’s speed and U-turning sharpish. Osula’s pace even allowed him time for a brief stumble before squaring up Malacia, who plainly didn’t fancy engaging. Malacia did not so much as show him inside as order him a taxi for the journey. Anything to keep him from going down the outside. Maguire was on the cover, let him deal with it.

Osula’s stepover was a wonderfully needless flourish. He dummied to go left and went left anyway, into the box to line up his shot.

Eddie Howe later revealed that Osula had asked for a bag of balls at the end of the previous day’s training to rehearse just this scenario. Perhaps with three mannequins in Maguire’s place, because as the forward took aim, the defender seemed to have everything under control. Any straight path to goal was blocked off and even if Osula went through Maguire, Senne Lammens was on the same line.

Perhaps that was the problem for United. Goalkeepers like a clean sight of the ball and to be trusted to deal with whatever comes down that line. Lammens might prefer Maguire to been half a pace over to protect the far post, but such detail, especially in these circumstances, is microscopic. Maguire might retort by asking Lammens did not at least get his knees dirty in attempting to keep out Osula’s effort, and it certainly is not the first time the keeper has been beaten with his feet on the ground this season.

The ball, though, was past Lammens before he could assess the danger, let alone avert it. There’s not a goal scored that isn’t somehow preventable, but the execution and the context demands we focus on Osula’s excellence and nothing else.

This being the Best League In The World, we are obliged to dig deep for greater meaning, to hail the heroes and condemn the villains.

Will these two minutes propel Newcastle? They might. Will they kill Carrick? Probably not. But what a f***ing ride regardless.