The first sign of trouble was the back window of the coach disappearing onto the road below and shattering under our tyres. The Leeds fans had been banging on it repeatedly as we drove behind them in a car on the final approach to Old Trafford, and the glass eventually gave way.
It was February 28, 1981. My first visit to Old Trafford and the last time Leeds had won in the league there before Monday night’s 2-1 victory ended a 45-year wait.
Outside the ground, there were scenes of carnage. More Leeds fans smashing their way out of coaches and buses, and charging into hundreds of Manchester United supporters even though they were hopelessly outnumbered as riot police struggled to restore order.
Brian Flynn scored the only goal in the 85th minute that afternoon at the opposite end of Old Trafford to Noah Okafor’s first-half brace on Monday, but the violence was the enduring memory.
These were the dark days of the 80s when football was tribal and hooliganism was rife. It has changed in the years since, yet the rivalry between Manchester United and Leeds United has retained dangerous levels of toxicity.
As recently as 2023, the two clubs condemned the behaviour of both sets of fans at Elland Road after they traded taunts over the Munich Air Disaster and the death of two Leeds fans in Istanbul in 2000 before a UEFA Cup tie against Galatasaray.
Thankfully, there was none of that at Old Trafford on Monday. Not that you could tell anyway. The Leeds fans were magnificent, roaring Daniel Farke’s side on to a famous victory that could go a long way to preserving their Premier League status. With a first FA Cup semi-final since the 80s also on the horizon, they couldn’t be happier right now.
Leeds have always had a ‘everybody hates us and we don’t care’ attitude, but the truth is that the Premier League will only benefit if they beat relegation. And, like it or not, Manchester United need Leeds just as Leeds need Manchester United; the team the other loves to hate.
It is one of English football’s enduring rivalries, and as long as it stays on the right side of the line, English football is all the better for it.
Carrick loses at the wrong time
Just when Manchester United looked to be coasting into the Champions League, and Michael Carrick into a long-term appointment at Old Trafford, along came Leeds to sow some seeds of doubt.
Carrick’s first home defeat shouldn’t be too much of a setback if United can get back to winning ways at Chelsea on Saturday. Champions League qualification is very much theirs to lose.
But a run of one win in four games is cause for concern, and it was a bad time to suffer a shock defeat against Leeds in front of co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The Ineos billionaire is known to be impulsive at times.
It’s unclear what United’s plan was when they put Carrick in charge until the end of the season, and how much that has changed due to the progress he has made in a short period of time.
The sensible option would still seem to be to keep him in charge. One result shouldn’t change that, but four of them might offer some food for thought – and so could any more wobbles in the remaining six games of the season.
Having described it as the ‘ultimate job’ before the Leeds game, Carrick doesn’t want to give Ratcliffe any more encouragement to re-assess his options.
Why it was better not to play…
The two Manchester United players to emerge with most credit from a sobering 2-1 defeat to Leeds were Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo.
Maguire was suspended and Mainoo injured, meaning they were missing from Michael Carrick’s starting line-up for the first time in 11 games and, fortunately for them, by far the worst display under the head coach.
Without Maguire, United struggled to contain the physical threat of Dominic Calvert-Lewin who forced Leny Yoro into an error for the first goal (illegally in Carrick’s view) and then drew a red card from Lisandro Martinez for pulling his hair (the wrong decision again, according to Carrick).
Paul Scholes suggested last week that United should sell Yoro this summer. There is no chance of that, but it did raise an interesting point. The young Frenchman struggles with the muck-and-nettles side of the English game, and needs to be more resilient.
If Maguire’s suspension is extended and both he and Martinez miss Saturday’s trip to Chelsea, Liam Rosenior would be wise to unleash Liam Delap on Yoro, particularly if he is playing alongside another young central defender in Ayden Heaven.
Meanwhile, Mainoo’s absence meant a rare opportunity for Manuel Ugarte. It’s fair to say the Uruguayan didn’t take it. Ugarte, signed from France the same summer as Yoro for a similar fee of around £50million, does not have the same level of support among the United hierarchy as his teammate and is expected to be sold at the end of the season.
It means United will be in the market for two central midfielders after deciding not to renew Casemiro’s contract – a move that continues to divide opinion despite the Brazilian’s astronomical earnings.
Casemiro’s goal against Leeds was his eighth of the season, and he went closest to an equaliser as well. It was a poor reflection on United’s attackers that the team’s biggest threat was a 34-year-old midfielder currently on a farewell tour.
It’s just as well the club are close to agreeing new terms with Mainoo over a new contract, or they could have been looking for three midfielders this summer. Without his mobility on Monday night, Casemiro and Ugarte were badly exposed.
The form that Mainoo and Maguire have been in under Carrick makes it all the more peculiar that United have taken so long to tie them down to new deals.
The worrying sign for England
Dominic Calvert-Lewin could hardly have been more of a handful for United at Old Trafford – quite literally when it came to Martinez grabbing his hair – but his performance also underlined the problem facing Thomas Tuchel this summer.
How England would cope without Harry Kane is a nagging question going into the World Cup, and there doesn’t appear to be an obvious answer. Does Tuchel rely on another centre-forward like Calvert-Lewin and Ollie Watkins, or go for a false nine from among the other attacking options available to him?
World Cup referees are unlikely to be so lenient as Paul Tierney towards Calvert-Lewin’s challenge on Yoro before Okafor’s opening goal, or even the flailing arm that led to Martinez pulling his hair.
As troublesome as he was, Calvert-Lewin was guilty of two glaring misses in front of goal when he aimed straight at Senne Lammens from Gabriel Gudmundsson’s cross in the opening minutes and then headed into the United keeper’s arms from close-range in the second half. In fact his single most important contribution of the night was a goal-line clearance from Casemiro.
The 29-year-old has been in good form this season, but hasn’t scored in his last six Premier League games. The two chances he squandered at Old Trafford didn’t cost Leeds in the end, but that kind of wastefulness could be very damaging to England.
