![]() Thursday, 21st Feb 2013 23:02 by Clive Whittingham The Manchester United juggernaut shows no signs of slowing as they close in on a thirteenth Premier League title. OverviewIt’s hard to shake the idea that Arsenal have rather given up. Not altogether, but certainly on the idea of achieving conventional football success. When QPR beat Manchester United 4-0 at Loftus Road in 1977 it was widely attributed to United having an FA Cup semi final against Leeds a few days later on their mind. These days many clubs see certain training sessions as more important to them than FA Cup games. Football for many clubs is no longer about winning trophies and medals, it’s about either finishing fourth or higher in the Premier League, or anywhere north of seventeenth. That’s a lamentable situation to be in, one that risks undermining the game in this country as ticket prices to see games in an uncompetitive league continue to soar. But it’s quite hard to blame Arsenal for their stance isn’t it? Since the Premier League launched in 1992 United have won it 12 times out of 19. Of the seven times they’ve failed to win it three of the four other teams to win it have done so simply by throwing unbelievable money at the task in hand. Manchester City last year and Chelsea in 2005, 2006 and 2010 only came into consideration for league titles because two of the world’s richest men turned up and paid whatever it took. Blackburn were only in a position to challenge in 1995 because Jack Walker had poured millions into his local team – and these days Walker would be small fry in comparison with most of the other chairmen in the league. Only Arsenal, in 1998, 2002 and 2004 won the league through things like better coaching, better use of the transfer market, more sophisticated methods, a better football team and so on. Whatever the reason has been for another club’s triumph, Manchester United have always found a way to overcome the challenge. Arsenal now seem resigned to simply trying to finish in the Champions League places each season while waiting for financial fair play rules they hope will bring the pack back towards them. City and Chelsea continue to throw stupid money at it, but are finding United are still streets ahead of them – when you consider that, it’s not hard to see why Arsenal aren’t that bothered for now. Ethos wise, Manchester United haven’t changed in the 26 years of Alex Ferguson’s management. They play attacking football, they focus on the development of young players, they coach and improve the players they have and save for one or two key men in an opposition team they focus on themselves, their own tactics and how they’re going to win the match rather than how to stop the opponent beating them. But Ferguson and the club are incredibly flexible. Embracing the sport science elements that enabled Arsenal to steal a march on them for a while and developing their own methods. During his managerial reign the team has changed completely several times in personnel, shape and style. He’s accommodated personalities as diverse and challenging as Eric Cantona, Ronaldo, David Beckham and Wayne Rooney. He’s bombed out big names like Beckham, Jaap Stam, Andrei Kanchelskis, Paul Ince and Roy Keane. He’s made mistakes – Gerard Pique – and he’s been knocked off his perch once or twice but the longevity of Ferguson and the success of his team is remarkable. So consistent, for so long, over the course of so many 65 game seasons. The latest, potentially greatest, challenge now lays abroad in European competition. Resurgence in the German leagues joining two very formidable Spanish sides – United crashed out of both European competitions early last season and their current Champions League tie against Real Madrid hangs in the balance. But to be honest, until Ferguson leaves and they have to find a way to replace him, all challenges are minor and more than likely to be overcome. It makes you sick doesn’t it? InterviewA couple of United fans took time out this week to talk to us about how wonderful things are for them: Patrick Campbell (@Bruno_Di_Gradi), who we’ve spoken to before, and Nick Tite, who we haven’t. Thanks to both of them for making the effort. Easy this isn't it? League sewn up – did you get better or did Man City stand still? Treble possibilities do you think? How do you see the second leg with Real Madrid going? Nick - A bit of both - City's cutting edge has been blunted a little this season and some of last season's big performers (Hart, Kompany, Yaya Toure) haven't be quite so influential. I think we have improved and have got back to sometimes grinding out results but it's often forgotten we were hammered by injuries last season, particularly Vidic. The 'treble' is a dream to hang on to but I do fear Real still. Ronaldo is Ronaldo but I thought Di Maria was exceptional last week and Benzema and Higuain can't be that poor again can they? Patrick - I remember last season you asked me a similar question, and I pleaded caution at the time. I was right too, because we didn't win the league, so perhaps you'll understand me doing the same thing again. It's obviously a good lead, and I'd rather be in pole position than playing catch up, but the season isn't over till it's over, to paraphrase Yogi Berra. I think there will be some twists and turns yet, although if we beat you this weekend and Chelsea get a result at City then maybe I'll start to believe. Did we get better or did City stand still? A bit of both, I think. Van Persie has been a revelation for us, to be honest - I think we all admired him and knew what a good player he was, but we didn't realise just how good he is. Meanwhile, City brought in Rodwell, Sinclair, Maicon, Nastasic and Garcia. Some of those players haven't played, the ones that have haven't exactly set the world on fire. Treble possibilities? No, I don't think so, but I'm a negative sod. I think Madrid will dump us out of the Champions League on away goals to be honest, as I see them scoring at least once at Old Trafford. The FA Cup game against Chelsea will be interesting, and City are still lurking in that competition as well. I'd genuinely be happy with just the league title back where it belongs. Anything else = bonus. David De Gea seems to be having a strange season – brilliant one week, mistake the next. How is he viewed by the United fans? Is he going to be the long term number one? Is a goalkeeper going to be high on the shopping list this summer? Patrick - David De Gea was bought to be our goalkeeper for - touch wood - at least ten years. At least. I think people forget how young he is. He's an incredible shot stopper, with a good kick on him. He struggles with the physical element of our league and obviously teams at the moment are targeting him in that way. He does need a settled pairing in front of him, I think, but he's learning all the time. He'll be the best goalkeeper in Europe within five years, I'm convinced of it. Nick - I'm a big fan of De Gea and think he will be one of Europe's top keepers in the next few years. Following van der Sar was never going to be easy and at such a young age too. I think most United fans are fully behind him - his mistakes are magnified by the media. De Gea has won us big points this season. De Gea was recently quite heavily criticised by Gary Neville following the draw at Spurs. What do you make of Neville's punditry? Was he harsh on that occasion? Nick - Gary Neville on Sky Sports has been a revelation and even fans of Liverpool have to admit that but I do feel he went over the top about De Gea's 'mistake' in the Spurs game. Lots of players were culpable for that goal if you watch it again. Patrick - I think Neville's comments were perhaps misinterpreted in that instance. His point was about the accountability in the United dressing room - the standards are so incredibly high there, and that's how it needs to be if you're going to compete for competitions at the highest level. I don't think he was saying anything that wouldn't have already been said in the dressing room by Sir Alex or the other players. I think he's an outstanding pundit, and it's fantastic television when he gets a strop on and goes off on one. Ji-Sung Park has been, frankly, dreadful for QPR. Does that surprise you? Were there signs we should have picked up on? Patrick - It doesn't surprise me at all, sadly. Ji Sung Park was a very useful player for us, but his entire game was based around his workrate, energy and application. In his final season with us it was clear that his legs had gone, and once that was the case he was finished, I'm afraid. He's not a player who can adapt to the ageing process in the way that Giggs, Scholes et al have managed to do. I really liked Park and I'll be forever grateful to him, but the time was right for him to move on. I've not seen him much for QPR, though I was very, very, very surprised at the start of the season when Hughes made him club captain. A very odd decision, I thought. Nick - Park was a good servant for United, although I never bought in to the idea he can only play in 'big' games - that's ludicrous. I think his influence on games was waning but to be fair to QPR I never thought he would be quite as poor as he has been. It's odd. There has been a situation at QPR recently where one of our players, Stephane Mbia, has been quite heavily criticised by his own supporters for play acting during games. Does Ashley Young get the same treatment from United fans, or are you just happy to take what he can win you? Nick - Young was accused of diving last season, Sir Alex had his say and he's not been guilty of it since. It's pretty much a non-issue I think. I thought Young had a decent first season but this season his impact has been negligible. He's had injuries sure, but United fans are more concerned over his form than the diving issue which we feel Ferguson dealt with well. Patrick - He does get criticised, but there's a weariness about all this nowadays isn't there? Footballers throw themselves to the floor, and no matter how much I hate that it ain't going to change. Players from every club do it, and it is very depressing. I don't think Ashley Young is a bigger "cheat" than some other players, but he certainly enjoys a flip and a roll or two and it makes me cringe. In fact, I think it is utterly embarrassing, but it won't ever change. Despite the success of this season, is it fair to say United have plenty of room for improvement – at centre half for instance? Who would you like to see come in? With the ongoing Glazer situation is the money there to go out and make a big headline grabbing signing – Gareth Bale for instance? Patrick - There's always room for improvement. I'd take Messi or Iniesta. The centre half situation is an interesting one though. Vidic and Ferdinand are both legends but they're also both over 30, and neither seem to play two games in a week nowadays. They will both be slowly phased out over the next season or two, which is a problem, yet in Evans and Smalling we have fantastic understudies. Jonny Evans has improved immeasurably in the last few seasons. I've gone from being a critic to a huge fan. He's terrific. Smalling is very solid. We wait to see where Phil Jones ends up because at the moment he's playing everywhere, the new John O'Shea when it comes to versatility. I think the money is there, but I don't think we need to make a "headline grabbing signing". That was certainly the case with Van Persie, but it's not Ferguson's style to do that every summer. As I write this we're clear at the top of the league, in the later stages of the FA Cup and in the knock-out stages of the Champions League, so we're hardly banging a drum and demanding we spend £50m on Gareth Bale. This summer I believe he'll look to bring in a midfielder, as Scholes and Fletcher will both retire, and he'll ship out Nani and bring in Zaha, but other than that I don't expect him to do anything else. Nick - I agree improvement is needed but I'm not convinced it's at centre back. Ferdinand has been exceptional - everyone but Roy Hodgson seems to agree on that. Vidic is feeling his way back and Jonny Evans has had a great 18 months. On top of that, Smalling and Jones can both play there too. I think the problem at the moment is on the flanks. We haven't been so effective at 4-4-2 this season because Young, Nani and Valencia haven't really performed. There have been times Ryan Giggs and Danny Welbeck have been our best wide players. So, a bid for Gareth Bale? Maybe....but if only the purse strings stretched to getting Ronaldo back. Ferguson says there is money if he needs it...us fans aren't so sure but with Ferguson in charge our fears are somewhat allayed. It will be interesting to see if the David Gill situation changes anything. Scout ReportIt’s a fairly futile scout report this week for two reasons. Firstly because Manchester United are obviously far better than Queens Park Rangers in every department apart from, arguably, goalkeeper. In fact Manchester United reserves are probably a good deal better than QPR in all departments and so even if you can pick faults with the team that’s currently 12 points clear at the top of the table – and I guess you can if you try hard enough – you need a team vastly, vastly superior to the one Rangers are able to field to take advantage of them. QPR have to defend in numbers, not be afraid to commit men to counter attacks, and tackle, run and work so hard that their midfielders are on a life support machine at the end of the day just to stand a chance. Even then, they’ll need United to have an off day and a good deal of luck to go their way. And secondly, despite the television companies’ insistence that we should watch Manchester United play every game in every competition every single week I actually watch them less than any other team in the division because, frankly, what’s the point? Where exactly is the interest and engagement in Monday’s night’s ESPN match at home to Reading? I knew what the outcome would be before the game kicked off and, sure enough, Man Utd won. So there’s two hours I saved myself by not watching – although given that I spent that two hours watching Crawley v Doncaster instead you could argue that I wasted it anyway. Still, I’d much rather watch a competitive game of zero quality than an uncompetitive one involving some of the best players in the world. All of which means I’ve only really seen United this season in games I thought they had a chance of losing – most recently Real Madrid and Spurs away. And that’s pretty useless for this weekend because this is one of those seemingly inevitable United wins that I tend to avoid watching, so I have little to go on. The situation is exacerbated because on the last three occasions I’ve watched United, Phil Jones has been a key man. Against Spurs they used him as almost a second right back, between the full back and the right winger, to crowd the spaces usually obliterated by Gareth Bale. Against Everton he was detailed to follow Fellaini and then last week in Madrid they did something similar with him on Ronaldo. QPR don’t have anybody of sufficient quality to demand a similar man marking job, and Jones is injured now anyway, so it’s largely irrelevant for this match but it’s testament to the job Jones has done in that role that his minor knock is making headlines two weeks away from the return leg with Madrid – he’s now seen as a key man for that tie when perhaps at the start of the season few would even have put him in their preferred United starting 11. Against Everton they also loaded their right flank with numbers – Rafael, Valencia and Jones – to restrict the space for Leighton Baines to get forward into. One issue United do have is at centre half where the obvious first choice pairing of Ferdinand and Vidic is in excellent form, but for one reason or another rarely fit to start. The Spurs match was just the ninth time the pair had played together in the previous 17 months and in the previous eight games United had won seven and drawn one. They drew at Spurs too. Ferdinand is making Roy Hodgson’s decision to throw his hat in with the vile Terry child and his ageing limbs is being made to look even more ridiculous with each passing week as Terry struggles for form and fitness while Ferdinand turns in one imperious display after another. Another – and bearing in mind the rag tag bunch of awfulness QPR are dragging out of the stray striker home this weekend – is fitting Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie into the same team. Mostly, when they’ve played together, it’s been Van Persie as the lone striker with Rooney deeper. That means Rooney often has to drop into midfield to make it a five when out of possession. Another technique they’ve used – and did so at Spurs – is a front three with a tight midfield three behind them which becomes a five out of possession. On that occasion it was Welbeck and Kagawa dropping deep – the former seems to play his best football for England although he was excellent in Madrid, the latter seems to be struggling to find fitness and a permanent role in the United team. When they play that ore narrow system it means more is expected of the full backs in an attacking sense and Patrice Evra is having the best goal scoring season of his career with four so far already as a result. If QPR are tempted, as they were against Spurs, to defend deeply and narrowly then beware – United’s goal at White Hart lane came against a similar defensive set up which they simply pulled apart by switching the play from one flank to the other and back again, pulling the defence side to side and creating an overload at the back post. Links >>> Official Website >>> Republik of Mancunia >>> Forum >>> Red Café site and forum Tweet @loftforwords, @Bruno_Di_Gradi Pictures – Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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