Mainoo and Garnacho to start, record signing made and Amorim ‘sacked in the morning’ in League Cup omen

Manchester United players might be planning their exit if picked to start against Grimsby – but Ruben Amorim would welcome a new club-record signing.

For the first time in over a decade, Manchester United have been thrown into the second round of the League Cup draw this season.

It presents a clear opportunity for Amorim to record his first win of the season – and just his 17th in 45 matches in charge.

But Manchester United have been here before: with a tactically rigid manager in his first full season; winless in their opening two Premier League games; with days remaining of the transfer window; and facing the ignominy of some early Carabao because of their lack of European football. And it did not go well.

The 4-0 defeat to League One side MK Dons in August 2014 still stands as one of the most embarrassing since Sir Alex Ferguson left, and really beyond that in the club’s entire history.

Van Gaal, serenaded with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” by the home fans at points throughout, was “not shocked” by the manner or measure of defeat.

He also said “it’s very difficult when you start as manager in the Premier League with a home match loss and after that a draw and then lose a cup match, then for the fans it is very difficult to believe, still believe, in the philosophy of Louis van Gaal. But you have to do that, you have to do that, because I am here to build a new team, and a new team is not built in one month.”

Change the name and that is pretty much verbatim what Amorim will say when Jaze Kabia humbles them at Blundell Park on Wednesday evening.

Van Gaal even pointed to the “process” of having to coach players on a three-at-the-back system. Grimsby are through and whoever starts for the visitors on the coast will be sold imminently.

There are some debatably positive omens. It only added to the hilarity and absurdity of the defeat that earlier in the day Manchester United announced the British record capture of Angel Di Maria, who would thankfully instantly solve all these problems by himself.

The “complete fanny” would likely have wilted at Stadium MK at the sight of Dean Lewington, Kyle McFadzean, Darren Potter and an 18-year-old Dele. This lot most certainly did.

David de Gea
The extent of the damage caused to the starting line-up named on that fateful evening will be laid bare in due course, but De Gea was typically immune to it.

The Spaniard was named in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year and the club’s Player of the Year that campaign, adding either or both honour a few times over during the subsequent eight seasons he spent between the sticks.

And even still he was discarded as easily as a free lunch or actual employee when it came to making and articulating an actual decision on his future when his final contract expired.

Marnick Vermijl
An injury crisis thrust Vermijl into the spotlight, two years after his first Manchester United appearance in a League Cup third-round win over Newcastle.

A player his father once said Sir Alex Ferguson predicted “would become a fixture in the Manchester United squad” in fact did not; those 90 chastening minutes which culminated in his mistake to let Benik Afobe in to score a fourth were his last in the shirt.

Marnick left in a permanent move to Sheffield Wednesday the following winter and is currently having Afobe-related nightmares as a 33-year-old at third-tier Belgian club Thes.

Michael Keane
While he is sometimes lumped in with those the club were wrong to sell, Keane stood precious little chance at Manchester United after a disastrous performance against League One opposition.

“I feel that when you play for United you don’t get too many chances and when you do you’ve got to take them,” he said a few months later. “But the whole team didn’t perform that day – it wasn’t just one or two players. I was gutted for a few days afterwards and I was really disappointed in myself but I was hopeful I’d get another chance. It didn’t happen.”

Perhaps sensing that opportunities would not be forthcoming after his fifth and final game, Keane sought the safe haven offered by Sean Dyche. A loan move to Burnley was completed within the week and made permanent by the winter.

Manchester United did at least land a sizeable portion of his next transfer through a sell-on fee.

Jonny Evans
Arguably the worst individual performance on a collectively catastrophic evening came from the captain. Evans owned up to his part of the “sloppy mistakes” and could be found on the scene of all four individual crimes.

“Once we had to start chasing the game their superior fitness levels showed, because most of our team hadn’t played in a while,” he added.

Yet Evans endured, sticking around for another season before leaving and frequently being labelled as a player who “should never have been allowed to leave”.

The MK Dons game was not mentioned in his return announcement almost a decade later.

Reece James
Not he of Chelsea fame but the Football League journeyman who is currently holed up at Rotherham, left-back James was given his debut in inauspicious circumstances and never played for the club again.

James had scored twice in a pre-season friendly against LA Galaxy, the first game in charge for Louis van Gaal, but “the MK Dons game killed me and I can only fault myself for that”.

Saidy Janko
When asked to name the four signings David Moyes made at Manchester United, the universal first answer is Marouane Fellaini. Once the realisation hits that he lasted beyond January, the next guess tends to be Juan Mata. And some might even recall the great Guillermo Varela, who started that ludicrous game against Arsenal in 2016.

Janko is the Sporcle trap, shuffling through the same door as Fellaini on deadline day in summer 2013. And his solitary Manchester United career appearance was cut short as the half-time substitute sacrifice.

“Giggsy said I did well and it was a bit unfortunate,” Janko later claimed while confirmed Van Gaal “didn’t speak to me”. But the Dutchman “was not happy with the formation” and “I was the one who had to go off but at least I got a few minutes”.

And to be fair, Manchester United went from 1-0 down at the break to a 4-0 loss without Janko. He was holding it all together.

Anderson
Four Premier League titles, a heroic penalty in the Champions League final and a legendary imbalance of absurd ability and non-existent work rate has ensured that Anderson’s final Manchester United start can be consigned deep to the back of the collective conscience.

But the sight of him struggling to keep track of Will Grigg as the closest central defender to the forward in an apparent three-at-the-back formation did sum up the latter part of his career in particular.

Anderson did play again for Manchester United, also summarily failing to impact a goalless draw with Burnley before heading back to Brazil at just 26.

Shinji Kagawa
It seems likely that Kagawa would be mildly grateful for the concussion he suffered in the opening stages of the game, seeing as it left him with no memory of what would transpire.

Manchester United were still holding MK Dons to a respectable goalless draw when he went off for Adnan Januzaj in what was the sad final appearance of an ultimately regretful spell at Old Trafford. Five days after the defeat he was back at Dortmund.

Nick Powell
It is the personal favourite post-Ferguson moment of many: when Manchester United, 2-1 down and needing to beat Wolfsburg to ensure a place in the Champions League knockouts, introduced Powell for Juan Mata around the hour mark.

Van Gaal’s side did draw level shortly thereafter but Wolfsburg immediately hit back to consign them to the Europa League.

It was Powell’s penultimate Manchester United appearance, and first in 16 months since his hour or so against MK Dons. His teammates were justifiably ‘bemused’ and the media was glowing with righteous indignation too.

Javier Hernandez
There is every reason to believe Van Gaal did tell Hernandez, as the Mexican later recounted, that he “only had a 1% chance of playing in my position”. That is entirely on brand with the manager’s methods.

But that “1% chance” did manifest itself as two starts under the Dutchman, who hauled Hernandez off at half-time of a goalless draw on the opening day with Swansea and let him slug it out for all of the MK Dons embarrassment.

Hernandez found himself on loan at Real Madrid the following week and was gone for good within the year.

Danny Welbeck
But Welbeck is most frequently cited as the one who should never have been allowed to get away.

Van Gaal explained that he had “given all the players a chance to convince me of their qualities” but decided to offload Welbeck to Arsenal “because of Falcao but also the youngsters who can fit in”.

Gary Neville, Jose Mourinho and Rio Ferdinand seem to take it in turns questioning why Welbeck was sold every six months and the player himself presumably felt the League Cup second round graveyard shift was an affront too far.

Welbeck never started again, made a cameo in the goalless draw with Burnley days later and joined Arsenal before the window closed.

In a nutshell, expect an uninterested starting line-up featuring Andre Onana, Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho, Antony, Tyrell Malacia, Rasmus Hojlund and Kobbie Mainoo to get battered before they are offloaded the following day.

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