SOCCER:Defensive guardians lacking speed of limb and thought that wins cups and leagues, writes PAUL HAYWARD
AN OVERLOOKED truth about Alex Ferguson’s long reign is that his best Manchester United sides have been built around strong centre-half partnerships. The eye drifts naturally to Eric Cantona, Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Rooney and away from the blanket throwers at the back. Starters, not stoppers, are the darlings of the Old Trafford crowd.
But from Gary Pallister and Steve Bruce to Jaap Stam and Ronny Johnsen and Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, United’s defensive pairings have sacrificed themselves for art. It was a wonder, then, that United began an eight-day grapple with Bayern Munich and Chelsea (in the Premier League on Saturday) in such a potent state given that last night’s quarter-final first leg in Bavaria was only the 11th time this season that Vidic and Ferdinand have started together.
The Olympian heights reached by the elegant Ferdinand and the more combative Vidic have been mostly absent in this campaign. England’s most graceful centre-half since Bobby Moore and the battered Serb, who uses his body with such macho intent alongside him, have been hampered by an assortment of infirmities. Vidic has also been struck by an apparent fear of playing at anything below full physical strength.
Ferdinand’s back trouble has caused him to lose races with Fernando Torres and Craig Bellamy and there has been persistent speculation about Vidic and a move to Real Madrid. With all this going on, Ferguson needed all his strategic cunning to disguise United’s defensive frailties and coax his first-choice centre-halves back to form and fitness at the point where the fixtures become a wheel of fire. Jonny Evans and Wes Brown held the fort for long stretches, but now is the time for impregnability.
In the most searching trials, though, Vidic and Ferdinand can still lack battle-hardness. This struck Ferguson sharply as Bayern threaded together a series of attacks half an hour into this match and the United manager lurched from his seat to berate Vidic for allowing Hamit Altintop to dart in behind him to meet a chip from midfield. Altintop’s first touch was Conference standard and the ball bounced on to Edwin van der Sar, but in the approach to half-time it was plain the two defensive guardians are still groping for the consistent speed of limb and thought that wins cups and leagues.
These were understandable imperfections, given their recent injury records, but there was no forgiveness for Michael Carrick from Ferguson or Rooney when he passed inaccurately across the face of his own penalty area and was then caught in possession near the centre-circle. Nani was next to feel Ferguson’s wrath, for a lack of enterprise and endeavour.
Only days had passed in the post-Ronaldo era before it became obvious that the void would have to be filled by a committee of the willing. Chief volunteer has been Rooney, who struck again one minute and seven seconds into this tie when Nani hoisted over a free-kick and Bayern’s defenders mysteriously evacuated the United striker’s space as Martin Demichelis slipped and allowed the prospective footballer of the year to lift the ball into the roof of Hans-Jorg Butt’s net.
In midfield, gap-filling work has been carried out by that solid citizen, Darren Fletcher, along with the two imperishables, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, while Nani and Antonio Valencia have restored some of the classic wing play with which so many of Ferguson’s trophy-winning sides have been synonymous. Here at the Allianz Arena, Valencia and Giggs were both omitted but Nani and Park Ji-sung provided wide penetration in a five-man midfield to offer further prove that United have deployed their assets cleverly to conceal a drop in creativity.
Manufacturing chances is never a problem. Rooney and Nani blew opportunities before Bayern emerged from the interval still snorting fire. The pre-match talk was right: on these nights you face not only the 11 opponents but the club itself, the history, the crowd’s energy.
United’s initial gift was that Bayern’s finishing was leagues below the quality of their approach play. With an hour gone England’s champions were besieged, with only the odd Rooney break-out to relieve the stress. Screening Van der Sar became a 10-man job.
After 69 minutes Ferguson tried to break the siege, sending on Dimitar Berbatov to join Rooney up front in place of Carrick and removing the ineffective Park in favour of Valencia.
United cannot endure the indignity of endless defending, so they were true to their identity in switching to a two-man attack to protect their away goal. But then Franck Ribery finally converted ceaseless German pressure with a deflected equaliser from a free-kick. If Ferdinand and Vidic needed a proper work-out, they got one here.
