Alex Ferguson's gamble so nearly paid off, reports PAUL HAYWARD
RISK-AVERSE was never a label likely to affix itself to Alex Ferguson. Had the gambler’s urge been surgically removed from him in a Govan hospital, then his managerial career might have petered out in Scotland. Old Trafford was never a monument to conservatism either and the heir to the Matt Busby attacking tradition has always responded to adversity with calculated boldness.
Three minutes into this super-charged Anglo-German end-game Ferguson backed three winners in one go. Rafael Da Silva, who had replaced Gary Neville, turned Bayern Munich’s Franck Ribery and whipped a pass to Wayne Rooney, he of the supposedly messed up ankle, who turned the ball to Darron Gibson – chosen ahead of Paul Scholes – to pummel a shot past Hans-Jorg Butt and set Old Trafford aglow.
Less than four minutes later Ferguson’s four-timer paid out at the betting window. Antonio Valencia, who had been left out for the first-leg defeat in Munich, twisted the blood of the German left-back Holger Badstuber before curling a flat cross for Nani to back-heel United’s second. Rooney played a part in this one, too, spraying the pass Valencia used to torture Badstuber.
In the defeat in Bavaria and Chelsea’s 2-1 win here on Saturday (United’s first back-to-back defeats for more than a year), Ferguson heard an approaching siren and reacted with wholesale change to a stalled team. Out went the increasingly ineffectual Park Ji-sung, while Neville was spared the anguish of having to deal with Ribery for a second time in eight days.
Valencia, who had to wait 70 minutes for his chance in Munich, was restored to the right flank to haunt Badstuber, whose display was reminiscent of the Tony Hibbert-Florent Malouda mismatch in last season’s Everton-Chelsea FA Cup final.
Yet Rooney’s return so soon after he had hobbled out of Bavaria on crutches and been given a two- to three-week sick note was the most startling expression of the Fergusonian principle. “You can’t take a risk with a player who is not 100 per cent,” the manager said on the eve of battle.
But by tea-time here Ferguson had been sufficiently reassured by his medical staff to draft Rooney straight back into the starting XI.
As the dice rolled across the green baize of United’s home, Dimitar Berbatov must have felt the cold dawn of rejection. Sentimentality ends at the point where seasons threaten to collapse and Ferguson was vindicated by Rooney’s first-half display and by his inspirational effect on the team for 54 minutes, before Rafael’s dismissal for a second yellow card brought John O’Shea on to the field in the England striker’s place.
By then, though, Bayern had responded to United’s onslaught with a goal by Ivica Olic and United were soon to concede again, to Arjen Robben.
“Faint heart never won fair lady,” Ferguson pointed out before last year’s semi-final against Arsenal, and this was his mind-set against the Bundesliga’s biggest name. After the pre-game handshakes came a low-slung sprint by Rooney from one side of the pitch to the other as United supporters on the far side rose to acclaim their Lazarus. Within 20 minutes he was hobbling but a thumbs-up to the bench assuaged the fear he might have exacerbated his ankle strain.
The first Bayern hack at the Rooney foot was delivered by Daniel van Buyten and sent United’s manager spinning into the coaching zone to protest.
Another context to Ferguson’s emphatic reordering of his side was that England’s flame was burning low in a competition the Premier League has come to dominate. Not since 2003 had an English side failed to reach the semi-final stage and the last five finals have featured members of the top four cartel: Liverpool in 2005 and 2007, Arsenal in 2006 and United in each of the last two, against Chelsea (2008) and Barcelona last year. One more win for an English club will bring the national game level with Spain on 12 wins (Real Madrid nine, Barcelona three) and ahead of Italy on 11 (Milan seven, Juventus two, Inter two), though those figures may change next month.
After five years of debt-fuelled ostentation by England’s best, Liverpool were dumped in the Europa League after the group stage, Chelsea bounced off Inter in the second round and Arsenal were eviscerated by Lionel Messi on Tuesday night. To talk of regression might be to fall into the trap of lumping evidence together rather than considering each exit in isolation, but we can say Liverpool have gone backwards, Chelsea were no match for Jose Mourinho and Arsenal look effete against the very best opposition.
Only once had United overcome a quarter-final first-leg defeat – here, in 2007, when they thumped Roma 7-1. On all five other occasions the first-leg defeat prefigured the journey’s end.
That curse has struck again.
