In the end, they did it in the 90 minutes. At a time when uncertainty swirled around the club and bookmakers made them rank underdogs, Manchester United pulled off one of the more unlikely victories in recent FA Cup final history.
Even better, Saturday’s 2-1 defeat of double-chasing neighbours Manchester City at Wembley was not via controversial refereeing decisions or freakish luck in front of goal, but through one of the best team performances United have managed since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson as manager in the summer of 2013.
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A team only a week removed from their lowest league finish in the Premier League era faced up against the best side in the country and frustrated and outfinessed them on their way to lifting the trophy.
Manager Erik ten Hag continued with the 4-2-2-2 experimentation that yielded victories against Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion towards the end of the league season. Bruno Fernandes and Scott McTominay returned as split strikers, tasked with collecting goalkeeper Andre Onana’s long passes and disrupting what passing moves City started from the back.
There was an improvement in the team’s out-of-possession structure: if a United player lost the ball, team-mates would swarm in to help them try to regain it. If they failed to do so within five seconds, the entire team would retreat into a compact 4-4-2. City finished the game with 73.5 per cent possession, and 19 total shots… but only four of them were on target.
United were dogged and determined in their defending. They were content to funnel City’s attacks out wide, safe in the knowledge that a centre-back partnership of Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane (playing only their sixth game together all season, and first since February 1) would be able to shackle Erling Haaland if any crosses were delivered into their penalty area.
Once players got onto the ball, the plan was to break quickly with Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho down the wings.
United’s attacking performance was ambitious without ever crossing over into arrogance. The erratic catapulted punts that have been a trademark of a dismal 2023-24 season were nowhere to be seen. Diogo Dalot’s long arrowed pass set loose Garnacho in the 30th minute and a defensive mix-up between Josko Gvardiol and Stefan Ortega in dealing with it allowed the 19-year-old to poke home the game’s opening goal.
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After beating second-tier Coventry by a “toenail” in the semi-finals last month, Ten Hag talked of the importance of “belief” in taking on foes as strong as City, and Garnacho’s goal began a chain reaction among players and the thousands of fans watching at Wembley and many more on screens all over the world. Pep Guardiola’s side are not infallible, after all: you can hurt them if you are prepared to suffer as a collective, and counter-attack with precision.
United’s second goal – by Kobbie Mainoo in the 39th minute – served as a wonderful exclamation mark.
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No socks and no sacking... for now: Erik ten Hag's strange (FA Cup winning) day at Wembley
The move began with Mainoo laying off a pass to Rashford inside United’s half. Rashford then hit a crossfield ball to Garnacho, who again had the beating of Gvardiol down the United right.
Garnacho carried the ball forward before passing inside for Bruno Fernandes. Instead of shooting at goal, the club captain — outstanding in every major facet of this game — played a wonderful disguised pass to Mainoo, who completed a stunning team move with a neat first-time finish.
It was the sort of team goal Ten Hag has wanted United to conjure all season; quickly getting the ball into the final third and overloading one wing, before making a dangerous pass towards the back post for the killer blow. Ten Hag hadn’t set up a team to simply show up, take their lumps and slink home with their runners-up medals. He had constructed a tactical plan worthy of the great occasion and his players were executing it to near-perfection.
Guardiola would attempt to change things with the introductions of Jeremy Doku and Julian Alvarez in the second half but United’s defence stood firm. A goal from Doku in the 87th minute made for a nervy finish, but this FA Cup — the 13th in the club’s history, one behind Arsenal’s record total — will go down as a famous victory. Ten Hag’s men won because they were stronger than City without the ball, swifter winning possession back, and smarter when using it.
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A day that started with questions over Ten Hag’s future at the club ended with the Dutchman earning his second piece of silverware in as many seasons as United manager.
“When I started here, I said I am here to win and also I want to build a team,” he said afterwards. “Both, I am doing. But if they don’t want me any more, I go somewhere else and win games and win trophies.”
As well as a trophy, this victory has earned Ten Hag an outpouring of goodwill from the fanbase after several dour weeks. This FA Cup is more than another piece of silverware, or a means to secure European football for United in 2024-25. It is the manager’s most compelling argument for keeping his job.
Ten Hag has good reason to claim that he has found ways to be successful, despite the swirling chaos and executive dysfunction which have bedevilled the club in the past 11 seasons. Who knows what he might be able to achieve if new minority owner INEOS builds a more structured footballing environment around him?
This summer represents another critical juncture for United. Both their goals on Saturday came from teenage academy graduates, but much of the club’s future remains unclear.
This was Varane’s final game in a United shirt. Loanee Soyfan Amrabat is unlikely to be a United player again next season. There are questions over the future of Casemiro too, after the Brazilian’s late withdrawal from the matchday squad, having initially been named as a substitute.
United’s senior hierarchy will conduct a season review — including an assessment of the manager’s performance — before deciding on the next steps. Ten Hag has twice shown he can win a Manchester derby but, if he is to still be in the dugout for 2024-25, he will have to close the 31-point gap to City in the league. The adaptations he has made in recent weeks have been productive but have long been needed.
If the 2023-24 FA Cup final is to be his final game in charge, then he will leave the club as a winner. If he is to stay in place, then several changes will need to happen above, around, and below him to ensure he, and they, continue to win.
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Would Man City stand by a manager who finished eighth in the league but won the FA Cup?
(Top photo: Eddie Keogh/The FA via Getty Images)
