Steve Cooper was the man in the camera’s focus last Friday night, the Leicester City manager at the heart of the narrative as his former club Nottingham Forest came to visit. But on Wednesday at Old Trafford, it would not be a surprise if the camera was fixed solely on the home dugout, barely giving the City boss a look.
The Manchester United circus – which it has undeniably been over the past decade – is looking for a new ringleader and all eyes and all discussion will be centred on interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy and the permanent incoming manager, looking likely to be Ruben Amorim. City, by comparison, are barely a sideshow.
But that perhaps gives them the best chance to profit. With the Carabao Cup last-16 tie being played just two days after Erik ten Hag’s sacking, it feels like United are still in a period of disarray. Their preparations for the game will have been unsettled.
They still have a very strong, expensively-put-together squad, and knowing Amorim may be watching, players will be keen to make an impression. It’s clearly not going to be easy for City, but the turmoil at United does give Cooper and his players a better shot at claiming the club’s first-ever cup victory at Old Trafford.
It also provides them with the opportunity to make a statement performance. Even with a rotated line-up, it gives them the chance to show the progress being made in the gameplan.
Cooper rightly made the point that, even more than usual, City’s focus needs to be on themselves and what they can do. It’s not known how Van Nistelrooy will approach the match, whether he will stick with what the team had been doing under Ten Hag or whether he will look to change lots of things to give the team a real fresh feel.
“When you come up against a change of manager, it’s a really good challenge to show how good your own work is in terms of your ideas with and without the ball. If you get it right, you should be able to adapt to anything you face. There’s even more reason to focus on ourselves.
“Man United have brilliant players who can make a difference in every area of the pitch. We have to be ready for that. But we also know we have players who can have good moments and we have to make sure we take that opportunity.
“We believe that if we get our game right, it can have a positive influence on any game we play. Of course you have to understand the opponents and dangerous players. But the biggest part of our gameplan, and it’s where we’re striving to get to, is that our game becomes the dominant factor in every game we play.
“There’s been a change of manager and that can add something to the atmosphere. We’re aware of that. But it hasn’t changed our objective and it hasn’t changed what we want to do in the game, and that’s the bit we can influence.”
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