The Devil In Me

We football fans are a notoriously fickle bunch. Either we are not happy because of the quality of the show or perhaps the fortitude of the results irk us. Either way, it’s certainly a mixed bag with United at the moment.

Our rather schizophrenic football club has assumed one of its more flippant guises this past week. It has been a welcome return to see a swaggering United side pushing forward in search of goals and glory. It seems a shame that we can’t marry that style with the habit of keeping clean sheets that has been prevalent over the past month.

However, I don’t think these things will be mutually exclusive forever. As mentioned in previous posts, this is a young team, which is also dealing with a bit of an injury crisis. As far as I am concerned things are just fine. In the medium and long term view Manchester United are doing exactly the right thing. In the short term, we are second in the league to the most expensive team in history and we have just dropped two points on the back of a borderline penalty decision. These things happen.

On the plus side, Javier Hernandez is in the form of his life at the moment. It was revealing to read a recent interview in which he said he considered packing it all in before he signed for United. Thank goodness he didn’t, at the moment he is holding our season together. Incidentally, he deserves great credit for reuniting United fans with the Sombrero. 

Maradona good, Pele better, George Best.
This week saw the sixth anniversary of George Best’s passing. It seemed fitting that it should coincide with the side returning to the kind of play the Northern Irishman’s side made the norm in the sixties.

Fergie was in a predictably excellent mood about the penalty call. “A travesty”, he said, “I don’t think anyone in the ground apart from the assistant thought it was a penalty”. One wonders if the changing room for match officials at Old Trafford is bulletproof. I certainly hope so.

It seems slightly inappropriate to whinge on about the men in black in the same week that German referee Babak Rafati has revealed his struggle with depression. It is possible though, to look at this situation without making angry football managers the bogeymen.

It is equally true to say that managers are under unbearable pressure and will likely react when they see perceived injustice. It is a long road, but one day depression will be viewed by society as something we all need to be mindful of, like asthma. At the moment, the structure of the sport is such, that multi-million pound decisions are being made at the blow of a whistle.

There can be no stronger argument for the introduction of video technology than that it would reduce the pressure on individual human beings. It would also be fairer, and United would be two points better off this season. It must be said of course, few will have sympathy with United for not getting a penalty appeal for a change. What goes around, I guess…

Nonetheless, even if the results haven’t gone our way this week I have seen my club go for it in two games and not get the rub of the green. That will change and the important thing is that the philosophy of attack, attack, attack stays the same. Our erratic luck will shift soon enough and in the meantime, we have plenty of blessings to count.

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In general, writers like things called ‘themes’ that they can hang their articles around. Therefore, if there is anything mildly unusual or different about a story, for example one of the teams in an English league match being Welsh, then you can expect the scribe to bang on about it for ages.

It won’t be much of a surprise to hear that people who spend the majority of their time watching football matches have often had somewhat misspent youths. During my teen years, when not filling Pannini sticker albums or shuffling along crowded streets towards stadiums United were due to play in, I could be found shooting pool or snooker to a reasonable standard. Never in my life have I met a nation of people who can beat me so consistently at the game of pool as the Welsh. Before this weekend, United had never won in Swansea either. It was time to put those things right.

Ryan Giggs, our Welsh representative, put his countrymen to the sword with the kind of simple tee-up that makes the game of football look easy. That is the second assist Giggs has in just six games this season, I am not sure he has even broken a serious sweat yet. He may be aging, but he is still class.

As is Javier Hernandez, whose finish proved the difference for us again as we slowly morph into “one-nil for the United”. Frankly, the fact that we are putting together results in any fashion whatsoever is a massive achievement. In much the same way that Arsenal have quietly rehabilitated themselves after their tonking at Old Trafford, United have been stacking up the points modestly and efficiently.

City, however, remain a menace. They are clearly both the stand-out squad in the division and the form team too. They have also just posted an operating loss larger than any recorded before in the history of English football. Doing such things is not an option for either United or the Gunners.

Instead of looking at the results City are posting, or the salary packets of their players, Fergie is doing what he can do and what he should do. He is improving our team’s lot week by week and making steady improvements. As he himself said in the post match interview, five clean sheets on the trot is not bad for a team who were being criticised for being too open at the back some short weeks ago.

The attacking side who stormed into the opening weeks of the campaign is still there and will emerge again when the time is right. In the meantime, steel and guile are being added to the attributes of this young squad.

United are marching on at the moment. Once again, we have our exceptional manager to thank for steering this club through another delicate patch. I have a sneaking suspicion that United will start moving up through the gears now. With games against Benfica and Newcastle up next, we will need to.
Now, who’s for a game of pool?

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As the dust settles on the anniversary of Sir Alex Ferguson’s arrival at the club we are still a quarter of the way through an active football season and in the thick of the battle.

If you had offered us 26 points from that opening run of fixtures many of us would have taken it. Although we have managed to put Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool to the sword the performance against City was such an abomination that nothing can be taken for granted.

Although many will think we should also have a Sir Matt Busby stand no one can begrudge the appropriateness of the club’s gesture to Sir Alex. It is also important to note that we have named the street that leads to the ground ‘Sir Matt Busby way’

It remains to be seen whether the erection of the statue will prove more tribute than distraction. My personal feeling is that it is wholly correct a statue of Fergie should be outside of Old Trafford. Whilst he is still in the job of manager might be too soon though.

Nonetheless, at this stage of the season it is notoriously tricky to see how the rest of the campaign will pan out. Here is a selection Fergie anniversaries from the great man’s 25 year tenure to chew over.

November 1986
United travel to League Cup winners Oxford and are beaten 2-0 at the Manor Ground, easily one of the countries worst stadiums. My dad was in attendance and remembers it being an unremarkably glum match.

End of the season:
United finish in 11th place, 30 points behind champions Everton. Although our home form is impressive, 13 victories, it is not enough to trouble the top of the table.

November 1991
Fergie’s fifth anniversary at Old Trafford was a bittersweet experience. Six months before he had brought home the club’s first European trophy since the sixties, winning the European Cup Winners Cup final against Barcelona. November 6th 1991 saw us bow out of the competition for the last ever time after a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford against Athletico Madrid who won 3-0 in the first leg.

End of the season:
The season’s end bore witness to a spectacular Manchester United collapse. Favourites until the start of April, United slipped behind Leeds after playing four fixtures in eight days. The team from Yorkshire finished four points above us in first, but it was still our most successful season for 25 years.

November 1996
Having proven the previous summer that you could win things with kids, a double in fact, United kept the ball rolling as the new season got underway. A one nil victory over Arsenal was the first result Fergie recorded after 10 years at the club.

End of the season:
This time United were league champions ahead of Newcastle United for the second season running. This time, however, it was far less spectacular and United won out by seven points in the end. By this stage, winning titles was expected at United, the ground capacity had increased and the club was almost unrecognisable to the one Ferguson had inherited 10 years before.

November 2001
After dreadful losses to Arsenal and Liverpool United picked themselves up again with a 2-0 victory over Leicester in the league. Goals from Van Nistelrooy and Yorke were enough but alas, Arsenal were to beat us again before 2001 was out.

End of the season:
In a season muddled by Ferguson’s retirement u-turn at Christmas the side underperformed hugely finishing third in the league behind Arsenal and Liverpool. Interestingly, United’s form in the second half of the season (after Fergie changed his mind) was much improved on the first half of the campaign.

November 2006
November 2006 was far from a vintage month for the Glasweigian. United lost his anniversary match to Southend in the League Cup and were beaten by Celtic, managed by United old boy Gordon Strachan, in the Champion’s League group stages.

End of the season:
This was, however, the season when Cristiano Ronaldo evolved from pretender to contender. His goals over Christmas and form towards the end of the campaign were sensational and saw United crowned league champions for the first time in four years.

November 2011
Although United are on a run of four successive victories with four clean sheets there is a certain trepidation around the place. Despite starting the season in blistering form playing with young players the recent mauling by Manchester City has everybody on edge.

End of the season:
Good question…

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It is certainly not business as usual when the best way to view a Manchester United match is via the ‘minute by minute’ report. Sadly, the club’s reputation for swashbuckling football that takes the breath away is looking misplaced at the moment.

It seems to be de riguer to score and concede several billion goals every time you step on the field in the top flight nowadays. United have decided to buck the trend out of necessity. The club and all of the players are still shell-shocked from the result against City.

After the start we had to the season this is all quite difficult to take. It now seems like a hundred years since we put eight goals past Arsenal. At the time I said that it is a fool who shouts from the rooftops in September and then went about clearing my throat. The fans at Old Trafford on Wednesday night, much as it hurts me to say it, were as quiet as mice.

But then, we didn’t have a lot to cheer on either. Whilst it is completely understandable that Ferguson would want to get some result between us and the derby, we have played dreadful football for several matchers on the trot. It is starting to go against the principles of the institution.

It also, somewhat, goes against the principles of team selection to play matches without a midfield. Call me Mr. Picky, but when we were taught the basic of the game you could play in defence if you were a clogger, in midfield if you could pass the ball, and up front if you could shoot accurately. The weird kid went in goal.

Anderson is starting to look like an ex-player, an also-ran, an expensive mistake and, personally, I have never been a fan of Michael Carrick. Those are just my opinions of course. The fact is that United haven’t bought a midfielder since I had a full head of hair. Rooney is an unbelievable footballer but he is one of the best strikers in the world. Putting him in front of the back four, well as he plays there, is mis-use of resources.

We have a surplus of assets up front this season (especially when Owen is not injured) so it makes sense to drop a striker back for the time being. You can’t hide from the reality that a temporary solution is a permanent problem though.

United now have three victories and three clean sheets in a week but we are not ourselves at the moment. It does nobody any good to whine about our lack of midfield reinforcements right now, but it is something that must be rectified in January. In the meantime the team needs to buck its ideas up and start playing like Manchester United again.

Sunderland at home is a good place to start.

Follow Mark on twitter.com/markjpayne