Manchester United 2006/2007 Season Preview (Again)
Answering Critics
Enough has been said already about Manchester United’s supposed problems – how are confidence is shot, how Alex Ferguson is losing it, how we lack depth in the squad and how Liverpool and even Arsenal have better first-teams than us.
I know for a fact that all this is bullshit. Here is a team that ran Chelsea agonisingly close towards the end of last season. No excuses for falling away in the end, but Manchester United are the only team who has been in touching distance of Chelsea in the last two seasons.
And if you had told me that we would have done that with Ryan Giggs and John O’Shea playing in the central midfield (with Darren Fletcher providing backup) I’d have lauged at you and your mother, but that is what happened, and the confidence generated from the squad’s ability to pull together in such times can only help Manchester United this season.
Heinze is back. Scholes is back. Carrick is in the squad (and should be fit for the the early Tottenham and Arsenal home double-header), and Hargreaves is on his way. The midfield is being revamped and the squad is much stronger now than it was last year.
Up front, Rooney should be able to assume Ruud’s mantle, while Saha and Rossi (not to mention Smith and Solskjaer) will provide enough goals to keep us in the hunt across all four competitions. It is comparable, if not better, than our top three rivals: Liverpool (Crouch, Bellamy, Kuyt, Fowler), Arsenal (Henry, Adebayour, Van Persie) and Chelsea (Shevchenko, Drogba, Kalou).
Was Liverpool the best team after October? All that news tells me is that over the period of a season Liverpool don’t have what it takes to keep up the pressure on the league leaders. The onus has been on Liverpool to improve massively, because both Arsenal and Manchester United suffered uncharacteristic blips with injuries and squad changes. This year, we are back to full strength and Arsenal are wiser. It will be harder for Liverpool to hold on to that 3rd spot, let alone inch towards 2nd.
And for all that has been said about Sir Alex Ferguson he is still a good enough manager to lead Manchester United to titles in the next couple of years.
Answering Fans
I imagine that there will a certain amount of unease amongst Manchester United fans this season, despite the capture of Carrick and the expected signing of Owen Hargreaves. It has mainly to do with the lack of superstar status in our signings, plus the lack of a second star striker to support Rooney.
There is no “myth” surrounding Carrick and Hargreaves – Gattuso has his reputation, Diarra has had his reputation built (albeit that one is a tad racially profiled) and even Mascherano is a star midfielder. People don’t rate Carrick and Hargreaves at the same level.
Why not? Because we don’t rate Tottenham, and we’ve seen Carrick make mistakes (and who rates an England player who plays in Germany and until this summer wasn’t considered good enough to spit-shine Gerrard’s shoes?). There is no aura built around Manchester United’s summer signings – and on the other hand I’ve had people tell me that Senna would be a great acquisition despite his age and the fact that he has never been an extraordinary midfielder.
It is unfortunate that Ferguson was not able to play Rooney and Ruud together as an effective partnership. Ideally buying a striker would help our cause immeasurably, but we still have a front line that is at par with the other top 3 clubs in the Premiership. Add to this the fact that we have bought smartly to help us do well in the Premiership as well as the Champions League, and the rumblings of a crisis are well and truly unfounded.
Looking Forward / Meaningless Predictions
Best Finish: Premiership Champions / Champions League Semi-finalists
Worst Finish: Third Spot, Champions Leage second round
Players to watch: Carrick, Hargreaves (if he comes), Rossi
Players who will carry us: the usual suspects – Rooney and Ferdinand
Players who will surprise us: Cristiano Ronaldo and Alan Smith – big performances expected from both of them this season.
Next Big Thing: David Jones will make it possible for us to replace Scholes, while Johnny Evans will help us sell Silvestre.
How do you think Manchester United will fare next season? Let me know in the comments below.
This article is Part 6 of our 6-part Manchester United 2006/2007 season preview coverage at Soccerlens.
I wouldn’t even rule out the possibility that we get Hargreaves AND Senna. Hargreaves is a very flexible player who can be considered a DM who can play anywhere in midfield. Senna would be more of a backup player and getting both is unlikely but certainly not impossible (or impossible to accomodate). The key to the possibility is that the extra midfield depth would allow Scholes or Ronaldo to be used as forwards from time to time – in effect we would therefore be strengthening our stiking options as well as our midfield options.
you are right mate we fought till the end with our shit 1st team now we have two new faces (carrick and owen) and player bac from injuries .If we are consistent and wins 3 or 4 macthes in start then we have a good chance of winning the league. Ameen God Help Man Utd
In large part..i agree with your assessment. If we sign Hargreaves, then we’ll have a squad more than capable of challenging Chelscum for the league title, and even if we don’t win the league United fans need to look at the big picture.
United fans are too quick to criticise Sir Alex by pointing to buys like Kleberson, Djemba Djemba, Miller, etc. However, let’s look at some of the other things Fergie has done over the last 5 years….
Bought: Rooney, Rio, Carrick, Vidic, Smith, Evra (although the jury is still out on him), Park, and Ronaldo (and hopefully Hargreaves).
Secured the young talent of Pique and Rossi
Has brought up and groomed: Richardson, Bardsley, Jones, and a couple other youngsters…
In short, 3 to 5 years from now, Fergie will be gone, and Man United fans (the smart ones anyway) will be more grateful to Fergie then than at any time while he was actually manager because we’ll have a squad loaded with talent, with a mixture of youth and experience; a squad that will be extremely strong, difficult to beat, and difficult not to lose against. If you take a long-term look at what Fergie has been doing over the last couple of years you’ll see that he’s ensured that when he finally leaves us for good (god forbid) our success will not leave with him.
Long live Alex….make him King.
I think buying Hargreaves will be good for the team but I still think we need another striker(Tevez or Torres)
I think we will win the Premiership this year. I’m not so sure about the CL however. I suppose the main thing for this season should be the PL. We have a good enough team to do it. Must admit. Was – still is – sceptical about SAF’s signings (and attemted signings). But, from reading on the various qualities the different players posess, I think I can see what he’s trying to do. We all criticising him forgets one ‘BIG’ thing. That is. Who knows ManUnited best? Who knows what ManU needs most to win the PL? Who feels worse when ManU suffers a humiliating defeat? Do you guys really think that SAF does not ‘STUDY’ his football and football players? Sometimes I think that perhaps we’re too caught up with our PS2 FIFA games and from that we know what’s best.
One thing bothers me though…
WHY IS NO.10 JERSEY NOT ASSIGNED?
Who better to give it to in the current squad than Rossi? Everybody knows that he is learning and would therefore not have put much pressure on him to fulfill RVN’s shoes. It would have been a great morale booster for him because SAF obviously feels that he is integral to the future of the club. Why then was it not assigned? Can it be that SAF expect to get an established center Forward?
Karl,
could be the Hargreaves could get it (I doubt it), or that we’re waiting to sign a centre-forward.
So your strike force ‘at par’ with the rest of the top four? Thats the problem. Last year you had RVNs goals to carry you when the rest of the team (especially the midfield)wasn’t up to scratch. Saha, Smith and Solskjaer won’t get the same number of goals between them
Adam,
Smith, Solskjaer, Rossi, Scholes – these four can make the difference up.
Saha and Rooney already had their share of goals last season but they will undoubtedly increase that in RVN’s absence.
To the outsider, United’s strikeforce looks shot. But I’ve seen these guys play a lot and making up for Ruud’s absence is quite possible for them, especially if they have Carrick (and hopefully Hargreaves) behind them to provide support.
I still think that we should sign another forward – but the current crop of strikers would do quite well.
Very nice article and really Ferguson shouldn`t be plamed always when we lose or don`t end up with any trophies. I think last three years ManUnited has gradually got better every year. Step by step and that`s because we are building new dominating team fro youngsters cause we don`t have financial muscle as great as Chelse and furthermore I wouln`t like ManUnited to be like Chelsea buying madly every superstar that wants money because usually they decide to go to Chelsea for the moneyfactor only and that`s very bad. And my finakl word is that we will sertainly be better than Liverpool and Arsenal this year. That`s for sure and also I think we might be even better than Chelsea. It will be close call between us and Chelsea.
players like smith, saha and solskjaer are nice players, but dont have the class of a RvN, Rooney, Kalou, Sheva, Persie, Henry!