United are walking a fine line between brilliance and failure
August is over and we have no one new to show for the last two torturous days…feels like shit, doesn’t it?
I’m reminded of an article I wrote a month ago - Manchester United are two steps away from being fucked. Read it. Seriously, take 5 mins out and read it.
Revisiting it confirms that David Gill, Alex Ferguson and the Glazers have taken the first step, and failed to sign that one elusive player that we really needed (midfielder, not striker). Now, only injuries separate us from a ‘good season’ and absolute failure.
But before you get on your podium and start telling me how bad (or good) a squad we have, here’s my take on it:
August saw a well-prepared, perfectly-drilled Manchester United take out 3 relegation-contenders with considerable ease (and all of those matches were without several first-team players). The team has shown a fighting spirit that was so severely lacking for Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham in all their games (Liverpool managed to turn it on long enough to help them score two goals, but that’s about it). This team may be short of quality and short in numbers, but their passing and sheer control of the game’s tempo is something that Manchester United fans have sorely missed over the past couple of years.
But they were relegation fodder. Watford will cause upsets, definitely, while Fulham and Charlton will mess around in the bottom 10. What about some serious opposition? Watford came the closest in disturbing Manchester United’s rhythm but once we get Vidic, Heinze and Neville back for Tottenham and Rooney and Scholes back for Arsenal, who would bet against Manchester United taking away all 6 points from those two games?
At full-strength, Manchester United are a match for any team. This is a settled outfit, and they have had excellent preparation under Ferguson and their passing and will to win are comparable to Arsenal 2004 and Chelsea 2005.
If the squad stays free of injuries (and that’s a BIG if), we won’t be seeing too much of Darren Fletcher. He will be fourth-choice behind Scholes, Carrick and O’Shea. If worse comes to worse, Smith can always come back to the midfield. Not ideal though. At the back, we need Ferdinand and Vidic to stay fit, because I don’t trust Brown and O’Shea to man central defence against the big guns. Brown has done well on the right and I hope that Evra improves his crossing and tackling so that he can take over from Silvestre.
Up front, Manchester United have 6 strikers, not 4. Apart from Rooney and Saha, Ferguson can call upon Giggs, Ronaldo, Solskjaer and Smith to fill in - and that’s not just because we’re short on numbers, but because Giggs and Ronaldo are such talented players that they can easily fill in that role. The presence of Ronaldo and Giggs in the team is extremely important for the balance of the squad, and they can do the job perfectly well. Richardson and Park can cover the flanks for both players, and while they are not the best replacements they do possess the same fighting spirit that the United squad is endowed with this season.
Right now, Manchester United easily has the first-team capable of winning the Premiership. Champions League too, although I doubt if we have the numbers and we will really be relying on the loan players coming back in Jan AND perhaps a new signing in January to deal with the full season.
Barring injuries, Manchester United should be in for a very interesting title-run.
sidebar:
Incidentally, the Fink Tank Predictor says that Manchester United will win the Premiership (Chelsea second, Liverpool 3rd, Arsenal 4th, Tottenham nowhere to be seen). I’m not going to argue with the maths behind it except to say that these predictions change after every match, so in a month or so the picture could be very, very different.
And about our failure to sign anyone in the transfer season (other than Carrick and Kuszczak)? Well, what CAN I say? I’m gutted but I haven’t lost faith in the team or the club - we knew beforehand that Manchester United were moving slowly in the transfer market and that they made serious mistakes by not approaching the right players (not to mention that Bayern Munich refused to sell a midfielder who is FOURTH-choice in their team), but a manager should not be judged solely on his transfer dealings.
Sir Alex Ferguson is a very flawed man but he is also the man who made Manchester United into a fearsome, all-conquering, never-say-die club. He can do it again, but for that we must judge him on the results the club can accomplish on the pitch.
Tottenham awaits, 9th September, Old Trafford.
Bring it on.
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Discussion - 14 Responses
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You’re living in a dream world mate. A team with John O’Shea as first-choice defensive midfielder will never win the Premiership, or the Champions League. It’s so annoying that we are just two players away from having an excellent side. Saha’s doing great now, but if he stops performing or gets injured - we are screwed. We needed a midfielder and another forward. In fact, if we had signed Tevez and Mascherano I’d make us favourites for the league. I know they were beyond our reach, but i think we’re that close. So near, yet so far. Second and a good but ultimately unsuccesful run in the Champions League is as good as it will get with this squad. Blind optimism to think anything else.
Well written.
Last night I sat and waited for THE signing, I unfortunatly got caught up in the Chelsea-mania and forgot what Man Utd is all about. United should never ever be about byuing players in bulk and discard those that did not make it, Sir Alex tried that the last few years and i feel it did not go so very well. If you look at the “treble team” as one always does with a huge smile that touches ones soul, you see that the core of the team was longtime serving players with determination and drive. So after reminding myself of those days I´m glad that Sir Alex did not rush into buying some player just for the hell of it. There´s only a few players that I think would fit the bill (Gattuso, Hargreaves, De Rossi) and if they´re not available then you have to wait until that changes, meanwhile I think the players in the squad should be given the chance to prove themselfes, I think the Jones lads are really interesting, one technical and one not that technical, i think they fit the bill better than any player bought for the hell of it.
If you look at the players out on loan you have so many talents like Martin, Bardsley, Rossi, Pique, Gibson and Dong. In conclusion, I only want to win the leauge in the Man United way (own talents and flowing attacking football) not the Chelsea way (buy everything that makes two correct passes in a row).
sorry for a bit off topic, but you should make a post on who should be the next penalty taker, for me ronaldo for several reason we all now. come what may, today he missed a penalty vs denmarks, someone got a youtube link?
what we need is slick passing, speed and accuracy. The last couple of years we flirted with “big names” and that got us nowhere. Chelsea’s flirtation was successful but hold on: its good only for 2 seasons. If SAF strategy is to be less dependent on strikers but to spread the goal-scoring task around, then it can only mean that with a big signining, our opponents can detetc our strategy.
Fair article. Being a Manu fan, I would like to believe that we can win the league this season. For now the lack of reinforcements is a huge disappointment. But how many times have Sir Alex proved us wrong and brought titles to us? Basically, I believe ManU’s renewed focus on the league would bring us close in Jan and we will use the January window to strengthen the weak areas.
Plus for the Mascherano transfer, we were the closest to signing them before the West Ham fiasco. Even the Corinthians website had Tevez and Mascherano as moving to Old Trafford. Perhaps we are not sure enough and want to take another look at Mascherano. I believe he will be headed to United come next season..
By right, we should win the league. This only come down to the point that we have that spirit back which we have not had for a few years now. The worry I had was cover for midfield which never came. But let’s stick to the positives, Fletcher might prove us wrong this season and O’Shea does not seem out of place in midfield. If they just sit and do a job there, I don’t see how we can’t make up for it with determination and grit. The other worry was in defense with Brown, Silvestre, Vidic, Neville and Heinze who are either injury prone or mistake prone. I wished this department out of all the others would have the best pre-season and Ferguson could have a settled back four by now. It is by no accident that all the sides that won the league had a settled and good back line. Attackers win games, defenders win titles.
To begin with I have to admit that I was disappointed that we did not add another midfielder. I prayed and prayed that somehow Hargreaves would come. But on deadline day, with Hargreaves ruled out, I quietly hoped for someone like Senna. But for some reason or other nothing happened. Probably Sir Alex will try again for Hargreaves in January or next summer bit I wouldn’t hold my breath for Bayern’s stance changing. As for Rossi’s loan, I’m in two minds. Firstly I was shocked at the prospect of seeing Giuseppe in a rival’s team shirt. But on second thoughts, it’s only for four months (I hope!) and he would probably not have played that much so it’s good for him. Hopefully we won’t regret it.
Anyway, barring injuries we’re not that bad. Here’s my ideal first eleven:
……………………Van der Sar……………………
Neville……Ferdinand…………Brown…………..Heinze
Ronaldo……..Carrick…………Scholes………….Giggs
……………Rooney……………Saha……………….
Our second team, or Carling cup XI would be:
……………………..Kuszczak…………………….
O’Shea…………Vidic………Silvestre…………..Evra
Park…………..Fletcher……..D.Jones……..Richardson
………………Smith……….Solskjaer
With Rooney and Scholes still suspended against Tottenham and Neville, Heinze, Smith and Vidic all lacking match-sharpness, I would say our line-up will be:
…………………….Van der Sar…………………..
Brown………Ferdinand…………..Silvestre………Evra
Fletcher……Carrick……………..O’Shea……..Ronaldo
……………………….Giggs……………………..
………………………..Saha……………………..
SUBS: Kuszczak, Vidic?, Park, Solskjaer, Richardson
Yes, we have to appricate that our team is not bad. Not bad not bad not bad. But not bad is not enough!
It is disastrous that we failed to capture any one competent defensive midfielder in the transfer window.
It is heartbreaking that originally how close we were going to get any one of Haragresy, Mersarano, Reo Coker and even Senna.
It is a shame that our managing staff failed to get their jobs done! I honestly think that David Gill and Sir Alex should step down for this failure if we finally won nothing out of the Premier League and the Champ. League this season.
More remarks, I don’t believe in the ‘let’s believe in Fergie’ stuffs.
Past record suggests that, when Keane missed major of the season through injuries twice and Cantona missed major of the season once, Fergie was never able to cope with the absence of them, and we lost the league titiles in this three respective years.
So Fergie is not GOD. He has to got suitable tools to do the jobs for him. He can certainly not win major trophies with OShea as his premier defensive midfielder. ‘You can bet your bottom dollar.’
Wait, it gets worse. United turned down the chance to sign Mascherano…TWICE. And apparently they were never interested in Tevez. With a board like this, who needs Chelsea?
ronaldo, up front?, did you watch the same world cup as me?.
On the brightside we have saved a budget that hopefully we can spend this christmas or next summer. i think are team is good enoughm and G Rossi going to Newcastle isn’t bad because he will help Newcastle nick points off ARE oposition, and he will be a better player because of it. The last two games we have played has just shown that we can do well and pick up points without Rooney and Scholes and Saha banging in goals for club and country, the future looks good for us. We have good enough cover for every position, so a few injuries wont hurt us.
Bhavesh, Is this another rumour, or is it official?
Why would United not even go for a loan deal? It just doesn’t make sense.
It’s official - I read the news on Reuters, and it’s all over the other major publications too. It makes no sense to me either, as we have very little cover in central midfield. Yes, we’ve made a great start to the season, but there are still 35 games to go, and we’re not likely to maintain a fully-fit squad through those games. Check the link I posted in my previous posted. Some of Gill’s quotes have “come back to bite me in the ass” written all over them.