The youth squad Mainoo surprises City and delivers the English Cup to Manchester United

Jim Ratcliffe, the King’s knight, promoter of Brexit, petrochemical businessman, the providential magnate, Downing Street’s favorite to enter the management of Manchester United and leave a vernacular stamp on the most international British club, attended circumspectly from the Wembley box to the first title of his era as co-owner. Winning the Cup, and doing so against City, the city’s emerging power, was a double obsession for Ratcliffe. His wish was fulfilled this Saturday. It was brought about by the intervention of Kobbie Mainoo, a 19-year-old boy who has broken with the thick inertia and pessimism that surrounds the club and the team. United plays hard when they don’t lock themselves in to survive in their area. Just two or three of those sparks in the form of a counterattack were enough for him to win the final against a City that did not overcome the hangover after winning what could have been the closest Premier League in history. United, for its part, eighth in the Premier, achieved its place in the Europa League for next season with the victory in this FA Cup.

The company had difficulties that had never been overcome. No one had ever won two consecutive doubles in the history of English football. This Saturday Manchester City tried to cross that desert. He never reached his destination. He disappeared in west London, under the Wembley arch. The chain was broken by its most fragile links: the indolent Gvardiol, the parsimonious Kovacic, and the tender Aké. If every team is the result of tensions and sometimes opposing energies, the combination of these three players in the mix ended up dragging City to perdition without those who should provide consistency being able to counteract it.

The bravery of Walker on the right side was not enough, nor the presence of Bernardo Silva, too far from relevant areas on the wing, nor the virtues of De Bruyne, visibly tired, nor the omnipresent Rodri, too alone too many times in the middle of the wheel. Ruben Dias, the pillar of the defense, remained on the bench in an enigmatic way. Only Guardiola knows the answer to the mystery of his continued substitutions. Without the Portuguese, City lives on the wire, exposed to footballers whose aggressiveness and territorial sense is just the conditioned reflection of training. In true defensive instinct it can never be a product of work. Gvardiol showed it at 1-0. As gifted as he is with physical and technical conditions, the Croatian did not fully perceive the danger in a situation that he could have resolved simply and that ended up turning into a resounding assist for Garnacho.

United’s Argentine attacker had the merit of breaking Aké’s offside before exploiting Gvardiol’s nonsense. The signal was discouraging for the City players, who were testing the ground in search of themselves. With a change of orientation from 50 meters by Dalot as the only response in half an hour of play, United had put them behind on the scoreboard. Forced, like against Madrid in the Champions League, to come back against a triple line stuck in a low block. But this time without Dias and without the illusion of the days of April.

Doku monopolizes the attack

Imagining the escalation that lay ahead must have deterred the Premier champions, judging by the reaction to the 1-0 scoreline. An invincible slowness took over their intellects, their legs, their movements. The ball circulated predictably, too often to the wings, where everything ended up in a dark corner. Haaland, Foden, Bernardo and De Bruyne rarely teamed up in the mid lane, where Varane and Amrabat found themselves progressively confident in managing the fortress. When Mainoo picked up that ball and started the play in midfield, five minutes before half-time, there was nothing to wait for a City revolt. No alarms were activated around Rodri. The pressure was indecisive. Rashford changed direction again with another 50-meter shot and Garnacho’s maneuver into space ended up in Ortega’s net after Mainoo finished off Bruno Fernandes’ pass. The 2-0 score accompanied City into the break like a bag of stones. Guardiola had no choice but to shake up his team with a battery of changes between the 46th and 55th minutes. Akanji for Aké, Doku for Kovacic, and Álvarez for De Bruyne.

It was like an adrenaline rush. Doku was crowds. The Belgian winger earned the right to start the upcoming preseason as the team’s first left winger in 45 dizzying minutes. He was turned on. His companions were looking for him. He asked for them all. With more lucidity than ever, he practically only generated up to four scoring chances. One crashed into the post, after Haaland’s shot. He scored another one himself in the final moments of the game with a shot from outside the area, to culminate a wave that pushed United into the catacombs. Onana took out two prodigious hands on shots from Foden and Walker, and Álvarez defined poorly. United resisted. The City of the symphony was reduced to the Doku-Rodri-Álvarez trio. The Cup went to the red neighbor. The reformer Ratcliffe can boast of a title.

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