FOR STEVE Bruce in 1993, can we read Federico Macheda in 2009? In every season there is always one of these moments for the side that wins the league. Remember Bruce’s header against Sheffield Wednesday, Eric Cantona’s volley at Newcastle, Andy Cole’s lob against Tottenham and all those other seminal goals in the portfolio of Alex Ferguson’s favourite Premier League wins?
This time it was a 17-year-old known as “Kiko”, signed from Lazio’s youth system 18 months ago with barely an inch of column print over here. You want to know some more about the teenager from Rome with the sense of the big occasion?
Check out his Facebook page and the photographs of him surrounded by orangey-yellow Paris Hilton wannabes. One imagines that a talented, handsome Italian, with this ability on a football pitch, can expect even more attention from now on.
“In terms of drama, equally so,” said Ferguson, when he was asked to compare it to that famous Bruce header. “You see the fans and those celebrations and people love to see that. I just said, ‘Well done.’ It’s important that he keeps his feet on the ground because he’s going to get a lot of publicity now, and he needs to handle that.”
Others would compare it to Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut against Bolton Wanderers in 2003 and, at the final whistle, it scarcely seemed to matter that United had looked so vulnerable in defence. The crowd were on their feet. Gary Neville, embarrassed for large chunks of the afternoon, was pumping his fists. Macheda had run to see his father, Pascuale.
High in the stand, the injured Rio Ferdinand had, for want of a better expression, lost the plot. It was bedlam. What, Ferguson was asked, had his gameplan been in those final moments? “Gamble,” he pronounced firmly. “Winning is the name of the game at this club. We play the right way and we deserve the result because we always try to win. Risks are part of football and this club has been that way for a long, long time. I love the thrill of it myself. I love to see that kind of adventure. Yes, we take terrible risks and we don’t defend properly. But there’s always a goal threat from us and the chance to win a match.”
To say United did not defend well was an understatement given the way Neville in particular suffered. “I’m just grateful to this lad,” he later acknowledged, standing next to the young match-winner and accepting the man-of-the-match champagne on his behalf (Macheda is too young to drink alcohol). “I think I paid for not having played for a couple of months. But he’s shown his quality in a finish that was just unbelievable. Obviously we’ve not seen him before today but he’s a great finisher. You would want it to fall to him.” Classic United.
“We took a gamble,” Ferguson admitted. “Gary hasn’t played for two months and, at 34, to start him at right-back would have been asking for a miracle. So I thought, ‘Start him at centre half, see how he copes.’ But of course you’ve got Carew, six foot five or whatever he is. He’s a massive man and he gave us that problem in the air.”
When the dust settles United will know they certainly cannot afford to defend this badly in their remaining games. But they have Nemanja Vidic to come back from suspension, even if Ferdinand’s groin injury will also keep him out of Tuesday’s Champions League tie against FC Porto.
“Everyone is talking about the challenge coming from Liverpool,” said Ferguson. “But we accept that challenge. Funnily enough I think the winner of the Liverpool-Chelsea [Champions League] tie will be our biggest threat. Whoever wins that, it will be a big step forward for them.”
This was a bullish Ferguson, confident that his team had got the 4-1 defeat to Liverpool out of their system. “Against Liverpool nothing seemed to go right for us, but I still felt we were the better side. [Liverpool’s] goals came from errors, the like of which we have not seen for a long time, and you simply cannot do anything about them in terms of preparation or tactics. If Liverpool had sliced us open with a spell of brilliant, attacking football, I would take a different view, but they didn’t outplay us.
“Four long balls down the middle, thanks to our mistakes, led to goals. What is important to me is the way the team played as a unit and in my book we did okay. We had 62 per cent of the possession and the way we were playing when we went in front I don’t think even the staunchest of Liverpool fans could envisage their team coming out on top.”
Guardian Service
