The best and worst of Manchester United’s season
Manchester United’s season was a big success – Premiership champions, CL semi-finalists and FA Cup finalists.
And we’ve already talked about some of the best moments from United season.
Today though, I wanted to talk in more general terms and take the best and worst aspects of our game from this season.
Manchester United’s best
The best part about Manchester United’s game this season was the team spirit and the collective responsibility that the players took in spreading the goals around and tackling attack and defense as a team. Everyone tracked back to defend and a notable transformation in that was the sight of Ronaldo tracking back to cover Neville and Rooney coming deep to defend.
They attacked in packs too – Evra, Heinze, Neville and Brown were often camped in the opposition half, playing true to the concept of attacking fullbacks. Vidic and Ferdinand were a threat from set-pieces and in crunch situations Ferdinand even took it upon himself to try to score from open play – something I’ve rarely seen central defenders do and for me is a mark of commitment towards the club’s cause.
United and Ferguson have to hone this spirit and keep this flame burning for the big games – the ones we lost this season.
And speaking of those games…
Manchester United’s worst
Arsenal’s league double over Manchester United hurts more losing to Southend United in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup. The manner of our loss to Milan in San Siro and the defeat to Chelsea at Wembley were also hard to swallow, but it would be churlish to put unnecessary blame on the squad or the manager – you lose some and you win some, and unfortunately we lost those games.
Overall, however, I noticed a similarity in all our losses.
One, we relied too much on Ronaldo. At times he was neutralised, at other times he was simply tired. Manchester United more options on the bench and they also need Rooney to take more responsibility to help them win games. Rooney has to have a phenomenal season next year, the sort Ronaldo had this season. In addition, we need our other players to do more damage – Carrick and Saha from the current crop, and all three new signings.
Two, defensive tactics work if we have a goal-poacher the style of Ruud van Nistelrooy to kill other teams off. We missed Ruud in all our losses this season – his presence could very well have seen us as at least FA Cup winners and beating Arsenal twice instead of losing to them (against Milan we had other problems). If Ferguson doesn’t buy a target-man, Rooney or Rossi have to give us that goal-scoring edge. My money is on both, but let’s see how the next season pans out.
Three, Manchester United bottled the Milan game because of tactics – and despite our sterling success this season in Europe, we simply must get our tactics right for the big games next season. You can’t go into a Champions League semifinal with our players afraid to make tackles, and you can’t play a team of individuals when spreading passes and possession can help you score easily (as is United’s style).
In times of desperation, United more often than not pulled out aces from their sleeves and put the games away with amazing comebacks (Blackburn and Everton). They need to do the same when the big games roll along. And if they can’t do that, at least the tactics should be spot on.
Let’s hope Ferguson can work these kinks out for next season.
Personally, I don’t blame Queiroz for us playing 4-5-1 – at the end of the day it’s Fergie’s call and he should know how the team should play.
And whatever the case, we can never play against a big team the way we played at San Siro.
This article is Part 6 of our 7-part Manchester United 2006/2007 season review coverage at Soccerlens.
Topics: Manchester United
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Ahmed,
Couldn’t agree more. As a ManUtd fan I think the last part of the season was the worst. Our key players got injured which resulted in loss of composure and physical strength against Milan (UCL Semi Final) and Chelsea (FA final). What we need and this is what I was worried in the beginning of the previous season, is the strong bench players. Players who can come in and contribute greatly to the team, something like Chelsea or Liverpool have in their bench (approximate skillful players in the bench as the first 11). Our first 11 is no doubt maybe the best in Europe but once two or three players get injured this is were the trouble begins to arrive.
June 7th, 2007 @ 16:42I’m hoping new signings (Anderson, Nani, OH) would be able to accomplish this task and prove the enourmous fee ManUtd paid was worth.
2006-2007
At the beginning of the season, I felt that MU would struggle to attain any silverware as our only acquisition was an over-priced Michael Carrick, SAF emphasis was on a good start to the season to avoid playing catch-up with Chelsea. Fortunately we did this and had a good Christmas too.
However, the cracks started to appear shortly afterwards as the games mounted up, players tired, suspensions and injuries grew and limited striking options. Even though, Larson plugged a gap for a few games.
In my opinion, the finish to the season suffered through lack of activity in the January transfer window to bolster our striking options, by the time May`07 arrived we had fringe players & kids on the bench.
However, we still managed to bring the Premiership home, largely due to Chelsea slip-ups on & off the pitch. And Ronaldo swept the board in domestic honours.
View on the coming campaign.
I predict another good season for MU and SAF & CQ have acted quickly to improve the squad. Our Goalkeeping, defending & midfield options look good, but Fergie still needs to do some work on striking options.
I believe we would benefit from having another striker to partner Rooney, but not a pacey player, but someone Tall, mobile & creative that would provide a great outlet on set pieces, corners, etc. a Berbatov would be great, however, a Crouch type coming from the bench in the last 15mins of a tight game would yield results. Someone like Nikola Zigic could do this job.
If fergie wanted to spring a surprise on the premiership, he could convert Ronaldo into the second striker (like Henry did) and scare the living daylights out of everyone.
June 7th, 2007 @ 20:17This option with Saha and Smith as understudies could be the catalise to achieving domestic and Europeans honors next season. However, I will leave the tactics to SAF.
Ronaldo was bought as a striker, and his introduction to the wings was only intended as an introductory measure. Last season we purchased Park, and this time we have added Nani. Considering Giggs can still perform it is not unreasonable to expect that we may start to see Rooney and Ronaldo together as a strike partnership (even if only a handfull of games). We now have more strength in depth on the wings and the addition of Nani may have been more than cover for an injured Park. That said the most obvious reason is he is Giggs long term replacement.
June 8th, 2007 @ 05:18The best of last season has been the formidable consistency over the whole season. In the last few years Chelsea have been putting an awesome pace to the race. Gone were those days when the title could have been won with 75 points and 6/7 defeats by May. Now a team needs almost a machine like efficiency and results. United managad to get results and still play open attacking football, score lotsa goals and secure a formidable success, and sustain the huge Chelsea pressure. Everyone played for each other and, most important, Ronaldo was AWESOME in some games!! Scoring 123 goals in all competitions was also a very good achievent.
on the negative side, the teams inability to hold their own against strong rivals was apparent. 1 goal in 2 games against Arsenal (2 defeats!!, just 1 in 3 games against Chelsea (2 draws and 1 defeat) and 3 against Liverpool (2 victories, yet the one at Anfield was somehow fortunate) is testimony that vast improvement is needed in terms of calibre and quality of the midfield and attacking areas. Our inability to dominate midfields against big clubs was all too apparent. Despite the hype i think Ronaldo is still to prove himself worthy of what we call “true greatness”. he has so far proved unable to shake off tight marking and he was terrible in the FA cup final. The arrival of Hargreaves might give Utd more grip in midfield. This will in turn give the attackers greater license of roam on the wings and grant better service the the front men. A mobile and strong partner for Rooney is needed if we want to get the best out of the merseysider. More striking options like Nani and Anderson will take the pressure off Ronaldo and Rooney, and allow Scholes and Giggs to get enough rest between games.
I believe Manchester United can only get better next season. I just hope SAF gets his tactics right in Europe coz 2 wins in a competition to which United is so closely linked is not enough…
June 8th, 2007 @ 12:35Excellent article Ahmed.
June 8th, 2007 @ 14:011st of all i would like to point out I’m Portuguese…
Basically Man United’s season was all about Ronaldo, without this edge they would be equal to Chelsea. But is Ronaldo’s “transformation” for real? I don’t think so; I believe he was playing his ass off for a new contract (which he got it). Next season, someone else will have to pick up the torch and run with it, probably Andersson (not Nani, I think he’s overrated).
PS: Next season’s favorite is still Man Utd, mostly due to the African cup of nations that will cost vital players to Chelsea…
June 8th, 2007 @ 14:12The constituency achieved last season was mainly down to a strong defense & control of the midfield, Ronaldo exceptional contribution was the icing on the cake, However,
What would the season have been like if Ronaldo did move on after the World Cup?
Would we have regained the premiership title? I doubt it.
So with this thought in mind, has the recent acquisitions cured the problems?
The 1999 treble winners had a great team spirit, strength in depth & 4 good strikers, who brought different things to the team. This allowed SAF to rotate players, still win games and make well thought out substitutions in tight-games, when we needed to score or kill off teams.
I see a lot of similarities with the current squad, except for the striking dept., which is why all ManU fans are anticipating an addition to this vital area.
In my earlier post, I suggested that Ronaldo would make an excellent 2nd striker.
However, Phobos last post suggests he was bought as one.
All the information I have read confirms him as a ‘winger’ but he’s own country (Portugal) used him as a striker in the last World Cup.
So, my fellow supporters,:-
1. Has SAF enough talent in the squad to achieve the title, double, treble or quadruple next season?
2. Should SAF add a striker or two to the squad?
3. Who should SAF release to make room for other players?
4. Who would you promote from the reserves/loan returns to the 1st team squad?
5. What tactics & formation is best? 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3
I (for one) would love to be a fly on the wall in David Gill & SAF office at Old Trafford.
June 8th, 2007 @ 20:17Ronaldo was bought as a winger.We all no the anti-beckham and No.7-shirt story.We all know the story where SAF asks his best players about ron
June 8th, 2007 @ 21:09@ devils_advocate:
Yes Ronaldo has been used has a 2nd striker by Portugal Manager Scolari. However he’s not good at it, besides that little edge of having Ronaldo on the wings is lost…
Also, “has SAF enough talent?” This season he will start to phase out Scholes and Giggs with Andersson and Nani, but only time can say if these players make or brake…
June 9th, 2007 @ 03:34This pass season was fantastic. Man untied dominate the league.Ronaldo was perfect, Rooney should have done beeter,Paul a real warrior. Now we must look on to next season.The team looks good but we must buy a pantner for Rooney. Berbatov is my pick. He has shown his goal scoring ability this season.If not we need to get someone tall, strong, flexible and can scores. Nani, Anderson, Owen need to contribute to the team.Jasonx and monique
June 9th, 2007 @ 21:29Well Expect a hard season from liverpool because look wat we can do with forward costing 9 million think about wat we can do with 30 million superstar wen the spanish transfer window officially opens and we get the team we deerve don’t expect an easy liverpool anymore hey
June 10th, 2007 @ 20:51