Harry Maguire: Captain, leader, golazao-scorer

Ten minutes. That’s how long mild panic lingered over Manchester United’s FA Cup tie with Tranmere Rovers before new captain Harry Maguire picked the ball up, drove forward and unleashed a howitzer into the top corner.

It was an incredible strike, the sort of effort that causes a viewer to involuntarily make sounds they have never made before.

Following their captain’s lead, Diogo Dalot and Jesse Lingard then decided to score peaches of their own, both wonderful, if very different, strikes.

More goals followed thanks to Phil Jones, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood. It was exactly the sort of performance you would normally expect of Manchester United. Except that this was completely unexpected because this is so far from a normal Manchester United.

If you had been following the build-up to this game you will have known that all the focus was on how a struggling United team were going to cope with Tranmere’s pitch.

Pretty easily, as it turns out.

The Warm-Up would be the first to admit that the scenes at Shrewsbury Town warmed our cold, cynical hearts. With so much debate over what the FA Cup means and the value of replays, the pitch invasion that ensued after Shrewsbury secured a 2-2 draw with champions-elect Liverpool was a sight to behold.

After all, what screams magic of the cup more than a bunch of kids and reserves being pegged back in the second half by a bloke who once brought a travel adaptor with him when he went from Scotland to Wales…

Perhaps the best embodiment was Jurgen Klopp saying afterwards that he and his starters will not be partaking in the replay as it comes during the new Premier League winter break, so instead it will be Neil Critchley in charge once more.

The FA Cup is one of the most illustrious competitions in world football that has sadly been eaten alive by the commercialisation of football but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.

For example, imagine the potential scenes we could have been treated to if for the last 15 minutes there was the chance of extra-time and penalties. That would really add to the drama.

Okay let’s get a quick caveat out of the way here. This is not directed at all Espanyol fans. This is directed at the group who were racially abusing Inaki Williams during Saturday’s match between Espanyol and Athletic.

Now we’re fairly confident that most people are able to translate what Williams was saying to the fans in the video above but we’re not going to give any ‘sorry for the language used’ type of warning.

Because if you go to a game and you racially abuse a player then f*** you. There is no area of life where that is acceptable, it is as simple as that. You cannot make any sort of argument as to why it is okay. If you think that you can go to a game of football and shout racist abuse at someone then f*** off, you are not welcome in football.

We hope La Liga hand out a punishment that even begins to fit the crime but frankly given the way football has dealt with racism so far we’re not confident.

It’s hard to know what is going to be required for a club to face a strict punishment that actually has ramifications. Of course it’s not the Espanyol players who racially abused Williams, it’s not their owners and nor is a large section of their fans but this cannot be allowed to continue.

Dock Espanyol points, points they cannot afford to lose, and maybe these fans will realise. Dock them points when they go down into the second division. Maybe that threat will force clubs and other fans to work harder to stamp out this sort of behaviour. There can be zero tolerance. Zero.

The Warm-Up would like to be completely honest with you here, dear reader. A few months ago we thought that Ashley Young’s career was well and truly over. We worried about what would happen when his Manchester United contract expired. We could see him getting the odd game for soon-to-be-newly-promoted West Bromwich Albion but that was as good as it got in our eyes.

But then, out of the mist, like a guardian angel for wing-backs, came Antonio Conte. He whisked Young, and Victor Moses lest we forget, over to Italy for another bit of former Premier League player renaissance.

And on his debut Young looked grand, putting in a terrific cross for Lautaro Martinez to head home the opener for Inter.

Look the less said about what happened afterwards (Cagliari equalised through on-loan Inter midfielder Radja Naiggolan and Martinez was sent off at the death) the better. One positive note for Moses, is that Cristiano Biraghi looked utterly dreadful on the left so you could feasibly imagine Young switching sides and Moses coming into the team on the right. Glorious.

Erling Braut Haaland has played 57 minutes for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga since his January transfer.

He has scored five goals.

He has more league goals than Manchester United in 2020.

He’s the only player in the history of the Bundesliga to score five goals in his first two games.

Frankly he’s taking the p***.

Frankly there are few things greater in life then Phil Jones going flying in mere minutes into the game against Tranmere and coming up looking like this.

Just look at him. What a magnificent specimen he really is. And of course he scored as well, because he’s Phil Jones.

One of these days Phil Jones isn’t going to be in our lives, then you’re all going to be sorry.

Nothing much to see here, just Josip Ilicic scoring this absolute beauty from the half-way line as Atalanta smashed Torino 7-0.

To be perfectly honest he’s hit that so well we’re not sure the keeper is going to save that even if he was in his goal.

There are going to be a lot of new football tournaments coming in the next year or so and the Warm-Up isn’t convinced we need any of them, let alone that they’re actually going to be any good (which they won’t).

Jonathan Wilson in the Guardian and Rory Smith in the New York Times outline the issues at hand very well in their articles on the matter.

Today is the 32nd birthday of Kerlon.

Happy birthday to the master of the seal dribble.

There’s tennis happening right now on Eurosport and it is well worth your time. Just look at this extraordinary display of defence from Fabio Fognini yesterday.

On Sunday evening the sporting world lost one of the most influential figures in its history.

He was a generational type of athlete who transcended his sport, the rarest thing an athlete could do. You may not have ever watched a basketball game in your life, but you knew who Kobe Bryant was.

RIP Mamba.

If that doesn’t interest you then there is some more FA Cup action as Arsenal travel to face Bournemouth this evening.