From treble to trouble - Manchester United in crisis
Rohit, also from SportZForumZ, writes about Manchester United’s impending crisis and the significance of tonight’s game against Roma
Achieving a treble is every club’s dream; an unrealistic target for some, but still some dare to dream it.
Manchester United dreamt of it, and achieved it in 1999. This season, they have got another opportunity. Prior to loosing to Roma in the Champions League, and Portsmouth, United were looking good to realistically aim for that treble dream.
They weren’t so wrong in doing so, they were pitted against a lowly Watford in the FA Cup, 6 points clear of Chelsea, and handed a Champions League tie against AS Roma. Everyone thought that maybe it’s their year…again…and it’s their turn to win the honors of the respective competitions.
But suddenly things have changed, changed a lot, drastically. The backline, which has made United among the very best this season, is now suddenly in all sorts of troubles. Injuries after injuries have plagued the team now, and the recent casualty of Vidic has surmounted the already serious problem. Silvestre, Neville, Evra and now Vidic, which makes 4 defenders, the complete backline if you play in a 4-4-2 or a 4-4-1-1.
Anyways, the point being, suddenly the team is in all sorts of problems. Saha is still unfit; Rooney is doing the job alone, Ole and Smith in support. This is what things do to you when you don’t have the usual defenders with you and the bench has to come up to it.
Not only that, Edwin Van Der Sar, who was having a great season, until the Roma game, is now suddenly questioned. The worse being the own goal by Ferdinand on Saturday in the away game at Pompey. This is what the absence of your key defense players can do to you, even the goalie is not spared. Although it’s entirely logical, as the defenders do the job of keeping the ball away from the goalie.
United, after loosing that away game at Roma, needs to win it by at least 1-0. The away goal which Rooney scored, saved a nearly disastrous trip to Rome, and the match tonight will be a nervy one, as United’s treble ambitions rely heavily on it.
Saha is still unfit, Evra is doubtful, the other injured defenders are still injured. Scholes will miss the game as he is suspended, with nearly the same squad which lost two consecutive games, and only Evra hopeful of joining in, and minus Scholes, United face an uphill task of surmounting all the odds and beat Roma at Old Trafford, and then win the home game against the Blades, to keep the pressure on Chelsea and maintain, if not increase, that vital 3 point advantage over Chelsea.
If they do it, it will really be a big confidence booster, or else Manchester United will be lurching from treble to trouble without any respite. After seeing Arsenal lose their marbles in a fortnight, Ferguson will do well to prevent something similar from happening to Manchester United.
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Discussion - 8 Responses
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How you can use the word \”crisis\” when talking about a team that sit at the top of the hardest and most-watched league in the world, are in the semi-final of the FA Cup and the quarter-final of the Champions League is beyond me. Put crisis in a thesaurus and you get words like \’catastrophe\’ and \’disaster\’ - if reaching the quarter-final of the Champions League and being within touching distance of the Premiership title is a disaster then all football teams might as well give up now as they appear not to be able to do anything right.
When teams like Manchester United and Chelsea leave their opponents in the shadows they are hated for being too successful, but when they have a difficult patch they are dismissed as being \”in crisis\”.
At the start of the season we were written of for having a lack of strength in depth. To be honest, I was one of those doubters who believed that we needed new blood in order to make a push for the title. If you told me in August that we would be three points clear at the top of the league and still in the FA Cup and Champions League on this day I would have laughed.
Well myself and many more doubters were proved wrong this season. We have gone from strength to strength and deserve every bit of sucess we get this season. Prior to the Portsmouth game we were on a phenomonal run of victories.
To think that run would never end was pure folly We had previously lost three of our last four away ties with Pompey and a shock was on the cards. Chelsea will have their slip ups too before the season is over, I am sure of that. Ours simply came first.
As for the Roma game, WE have failed to perform well all season away from home in Europe. The fact that Scholes was sent off so early in the game ensured we were fighting a loosing battle and we will not know our true fate until tonight.
Far from being a crisis, this season has been a triumph for United. We have wowed the world with our beautiful game and are still in strong contention for three competitions. Should Evra return tonight our defensive problems will be eased somewhat and things will start to look up. All this talk of an impending crisis is nonsence. We have got this far. We have the ability to go all the way. All us fans have to do is believe.
I’m afraid you’re bloody wrong mate
This season is a success, as donie said. Yes, it will be disappointing if we do not with the Prem, but the strength shown throughout this campaign (despite lapses against Southend, in the CL and against Arsenal) is commendable and the credit goes to Ferguson for getting the most out of this squad.
Chelsea had their slips too, they just had them mid-season. Tonight the season will really start - in four days we’ll know where we stand in two competitions, and I fully expect Man Utd to be in the finals and semi finals of both of them.
And if Manchester United lose to Roma? No problem, we’ll do better next season.
But trouble?
Nah….
Right now, I’d sooner just take the league. The FA Cup and Champions League would only be the icing on the cake.
What do you think?
Why is it that whenever ManU lose a match then its in crisis?
Out of the 7 remaining games, we are allowed one more ’slip-up’…still no crisis. Should we - for some strange reason - finninsh 2nd in the leauge, then still no crisis. I said in the beginning of season that I feel we can go all the way, I still believe it. The FA and CL however I think is a bonus. But, United still deserves it for the performance the guys put in in order to get to this point.
Why are Liverpool and Arsenal not in crisis? Can it be that they currently over-performed on their expectations?
“But suddenly things have changed, changed a lot, drastically.”
This is a wind-up, right? Having been outstanding all season and relatively injury free, as soon as we have a bit of stretch in the resources you’re throwing the towel in!!
While the defence is not quite as solid without Vidic and Neville, both Brown and O’Shea are very capable and experienced cover. Heinze is interchangeable with Evra so no problem there. Anyway, Evra is now back as is Fletcher, OGS and Saha has only had a minor setback while Smith looks sharp and hungry. Neville is only a couple of weeks away and Vidic may not be long after that. We have more than enough to cope.
The Roma away defeat was as much down to playing with 10 men for so long as anything else. I didn’t consider it a mistake by VDS as the ball came steaming at him and he reacted well. The attacker was very lucky the way the ball fell to him.
The loss to Pourtsmouth….just one of those things when you play a decent team away at the business end of the season. Sometimes the odd result just gets away but expect Chelsea to have a blip too and remember….our six point lead always allowed us 2 losses on the run-in.
Forget the doom and gloom and get positive for the final push to glory.
Mind you, after last night you’re probably back to your “Bring on the Treble” mood again!
no ronaldo is NOT over rated and over hyped he is very good at what he does! 7-1 to man-u with out him it would of been 5-1 hes very good!