Feb 01
Fergie’s Super-Galactico Dream
I don’t know how many of you watched our FA Cup game against Spurs on the BBC. I did, and in between the usual inane banter in the studio and the consistently good commentary of Jonathan Pearce (please retire, Motty, and take Lawrenson with you), was a strong theme. The excellence of Dimitar Berbatov was constantly referred to, with all the usual cliches, and with many a mention of how he is United’s “number one target for the summer”.
This is not the place to debate that move. It’s been done lots, and I don’t have a lot new to say on him at the moment. However, it put me back in mind of a long term strategy which has been in place at United for some time now. It is simultaneously the reason why we will look to buy someone like Berbatov, and the way we will fit that player into our side. It is the Super-Galactico strategy, and its importance is underestimated by nearly all the journalists, pundits and fans who give their views on our beloved club.
A history lesson
Let your mind drift back through the mists of time to 2003. We meet Real Madrid in the quarter finals of the Champions League, when they are at the height of their powers. Their team, to refresh your memory was:
Casillas; Salgado, Hierro, Helguera, Roberto Carlos; Makalele, Conceicao; Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo; Raul.
A reliable keeper. Two full backs who were potent attackers. A solid centre back pairing, but who could play the ball and were a threat at set plays. Two deep lying midfield players, one a tackler who could pass, one a passer who could tackle. Three unbelievably talented free spirits who could play from anywhere, both scoring and creating goals. And a leader of the line, not as spectacular as the others but capable of brilliance, whose job was to score as many as possible from within the 18 yard box.
Sound familiar? See where I’m going? Well, let’s continue our history lesson.
We went to the Bernabeu on 8 April 2003, and were on the receiving end of one of the finest halves of football I have ever witnessed. Madrid were so good it was unfair, such levels of quality should be banned. We couldn’t get the ball, couldn’t even get close. We got out with a 3-1 defeat, and were delighted to still be mathematically in the tie. That’s the only time I can remember a United team being genuinely happy with a 2 goal loss.
Two weeks later, Real came to Old Trafford, and we came from 3-1 down to win an absolutely pulsating game 4-3. It was a stunning game of football, for fans of both sides and for neutrals. We went out of Europe, of course, but the over-riding emotion for Fergie, to judge from interviews he gave after the game in in following weeks, that night was “I want more of this”.
Crystallisation of the dream
And so it began. Strong defensive unit, fullbacks who could be wingers, two complementary central midfielders, three cascading attackers, and a focal point. The blueprint was there…4-2-3-1 is born – and haven’t we all hated it. Queiroz’s corruption; a betrayal of beautiful football; an admission we’re not good enough; over-sophistication…the list of criticisms is endless, and I agreed with most from time to time.
But born it was, and all we needed now was the players. Trouble is, that’s not so easy. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about Fergie’s Houllier / Benitez phase of buying lots of substandard players. And I’m going to pretend that he never saw Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson as the destructive/creative deep midfield pair, or Forlan as part of the free-roaming attacking trio. It’s been building for a while, now, though.
Two years ago, we had Ruud, complemented by Giggs, Rooney and Ronaldo – not quite good enough, Ronaldo was immature and nothing like the player we see today, Giggs still struggles to operate centrally and Rooney dislikes operating anywhere else. Saha (a perfect fluid forward, at his best), was then and is still injured. Solskjaer (lest anyone forget, the player who was supposed to take over from Becks on the right) – injured, never to be the same again. Keane retired, and his replacements substandard. Bring back 4-4-2, we cried.
And last year, ground down by failure, 4-4-2 came back, and we loved it. At last, Quieroz has been subdued, we laughed. Not so – Fergie had subdued himself. Ruud, seemingly the ideal focal point, had gone, and to replace his goals we needed a more innately attacking system. Two up top, two wingers, attacking central midfielders…we needed our goals back, and Fergie was going to fix it.
At the gates…
But now he can begin to dream again, and I for one finally dream with him, rather than wanting the high-flying fantasies to be tinged with reality. The final piece of his 5-year puzzle is the focal point – but this time someone who has to fit in with our existing excellence, rather than rail against it as Ruud did. Allow me to present Fergie’s dream team:
EVDS (or Foster going forward) – solid keeper capable of match-turning saves.
Neville (or one of our various transfer targets) and Evra – great defenders who offer a lot going forward
Rio and Vidic – superb defensive pairing, capable of marshalling / dealing with an occasional lack of cover from the front 4 (watch how often we go man-for-man at the back compared with most teams).
Hargreaves and Anderson – deep lying midfielders, one more destructive, one more creative.
Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo – unbelievable attackers capable of creating chances and goals from anywhere on the pitch, all willing to drop deep and swap positions.
The Focal Point (Berbatov, Huntelaar, etc) – aerial threat in the box, good enough on the ground to link in with the passing movements, another 20 goals a season.
One big and one medium signing, and he’s there, in footballing heaven. And, without a ludicrous celebrity culture, an interfering president, managerial instability, so are we.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Fergie Happy to Take Second Bite
- Fergie’s Cleverley About-Face
- Ronaldo Returns + Fergie’s Optimism Dips + Squad ‘Swells’
- Deadline Day Looms…
- Why Heinze Won’t Go to Liverpool
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (89)
Craig Mc (26)
Ian (18)
check this site streams
http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=5635&part=sports
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im dissapointed anderson is not starting, but im looking forward to the game, come on you REDS
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damn…. v havent been able to kickstart quickly… 1 goal down and 67 min to play…
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If we had just bought Berbatov in the transfer window he wouldn’t have scored!
C’mon lads!
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this match is not going well for us, we have no rhythem at all, ourmidfield is lacking completly, we need a player to step up
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looks like we are getting manhandled. their reinforced D looks good.
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Spurs took the game to us, so I am not sure what can we do. We are loosing midfield and our deffence is under presure. I think we made only one stoot on goal and it was in the last minute. We really don’t have any rhythem or rather Spurs are not allowing us to have one. It’s gonna be a long day…
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Anderson maybe?
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scholes and giggs off.scholes is good but he slows us down esp since spurs are an attacking team.giggs?where is he?
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Giggs has disappeared… he’s really having a howler…. Bring Nani on 4 d left… V arent showing much pace… SAF will beat them and send them out black and blue…
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Carrick??????????????????????????
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carrick on for hargo WTF, fergie i have faith in you, though andersons speed would have been better than carricks inconnsistency
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WHAT THE FUCK IS THE OLD BOY PLAYIN AT?!!! ITS CLEAR TO SEE WHAT CHANGES NEED TO BE MADE??!
……….Lets pray lads…
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Anderson will score.
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thank god anderson is on, lets pray we can now get the goal, and be within 2 points of le arse
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Yep Surely seems like along day Chelsie just scored. I have a feed but I can’t watch it anymore. I think I know the reason. I spent several hours yesterday on Pool’s blogs and had a lot fun reading their pathetic and misarable comments. I was enjoying their misery so much, that I guess I am having my divine judgement. Please GOD I am sorry I will not do it any more, so let us win
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Anderson! That was close! Where’s Paul Robinson when you need him?
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WOW, i have a new superstition, every saterday match i dont watch from the start, we lose, happend with bolton, looks like its happening now. sorry guys.
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Damn it Rooney! You better be ready to score against Arse!
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Too little, too late! I think this game is beyond us.
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theres not long left, weve lost this game, honestly we have been poor, or spurs have been
goodlucky, either way, le arse are topLike?
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really sorry
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TEVEEEEEEEEEEEZ!
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YESSSSSSSSSSS IM CRYING
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Tevez saved our arses at least a point
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Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! Tevez! Well, at least we didnt lose!
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all we have to do is make sure we beat city, and make sure we beat the arseholes and we’re top.
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dont get me wrong, I am ecstatic we won. but in all honesty we didnt deserve the point. But ill take it in a heartbeat tttteeeeevvvvveeeeezzzzzz
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whatta shit game. hargo should never have started. anderson has to be right in there from the start and we’ll stand a better chance of winning games.
giggs was back to playing like league 1 player, almost as if he wasnt even on the pitch.
chelsea dropped points as well, so it’s gna be interesting.
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Spurs ran the whole day. I mean it seemed that they would never get tired and I think out old timers let us down, nobody was good, but Giggs was really bad. One might argue that Anderson and Nani looked better because Spurs got tired, but I think they were better Andy had a shoot saved and Nani had couple of chances. point is bbetr than nothing and Tevez is again dilevers when we need it. rooney was bad too
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so if im right, the the senior players played shite, and best player was andy, i am never missing a saterday 3:00 kick-off again.
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better than losing but shit we did’nt desrve it the hunger was missing from united
and where was rooney playing
commentators saying he was playing on right wing wtf
i saw him staying a bit behind and many times defending in the second half
not something i like to see more off
arse are not losing so lets wait to kill them when we meet them
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anderson was easily the best player for united even if he only played thirty mins or so
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roony got his 5th yea? out for citeh but back for the scientologists(ars). is saha fit yet?
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roony did great in defense though. if he never scores again we may have found a replacement for nevill haha jk roon please score on ars
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Dan, you better not lose another Saturday 3 o`clock match this season!
I just wonder if that goal was Tevez or Dawsons? On sportinglife it was written that it was a Dawson OG, but I think it was Tevez goal.
Everybody except Anderson and Wes were shite today. Im very dissapointed by Ronaldo, he was the worst player on the pitch. Happy we scored, gutted not to be top of the league, and looking forward to see City getting trashed next sunday!
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Ronaldo wasn’t the worst player Giggs was and then Scholes, Hargo and Ronney weren’t that good either. Ronaldo didn’t have a good game beacuse of the Spurs and that’s when other players (Rooney, Tevez, Giigs and Scholes) should come up with the goods, but they didn’t…well Tevez did, but where the hell were the rest of them. I also think that SAF shouldn’t start Giigs and Scholes at the same time, because they slow down the midfield too much.
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to how you guys are describing the game, worst performance of the season and giggs and scholes shouldnt start anymore, am i getting warmer?
CRAP!! just rememberd the arse match is cup and not league…this is going to be 1 of the hardest endings of a season ever.
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just realised there…..As i was talkin bout earlier- Nani’s corner results in aNnother goal!
He needs to start the next game. let him n ando start the game then introduce giggs FOR 20 MINS OR
SO! NOTHING MORE
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Due to our poor performance, it was a good result! We lost the leadership but we “just” need a draw from Arsenal to get back on top. Have you noticed how
Otherwise…
well Arsenal plays? zzzzz Thank God there is Jermaine Defoe!
About the game…
– Bad –
- Ferdinand! Worst game of the season?
- SAF tactis. Ronaldo as a Centre Forward? Rooney as a winger? It was united´s worst period of the game. The ironic thing here is that SAF is admitting
that we need someone taller and stronger upfront. Duhhhh.
- Vidic and Ferdinand sloopy passing. Lost the ball over and over and over…
- Giggs!! I really like Giggs, but he doesn´t have the abillity to play for United in the away games. He´s to slow to play in the left wing and in the
middle he gives the ball away to many times. One player less!
- Where are Rooney atacking skills? He looks like Alan Smith.
– Good –
Few things here… Still:
- The energy and attitude that Nani and Anderson brought to the team, even with some sloppy decisions and passes they showed the hunger of playing and winning.
- Another goal from Carlos Tevez in a crucial game (like with Chelski and Liverpool).
Arsenal has been the best tem this season. We just need to keep in touch with them and wait for some magic in the Old Trafford game .
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yeah dan last time i saw united play this bad, i was in the stands watching chelsea lift the FA cup, it was a fucking disgrace, im not doing a match report, because that would be too much effort on my part for such an effortless performance, though i think we should bounce back, arsenal are due a slip up or so, but when is the answer
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As usual -very high standard of debate and ideas. Not wanting to be the “voice of doom” here -but I feel we may have some issues soon about upgrading the pay of some players -or risk loosing them -esp if Ronaldo wins “World player of the year” etc. I think “consolidation” will be the order of the day this summer -and any big signing will likely be a full-back -maybe 2. Finally -some awesome sides have used 4-4-2 over they years and I think this formation may yield United better results in the PL than 4-2-3-1
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Arseanl are going to lose against us in April, slip up against Chelsea on my birthday, and they have some really tough games in the future! Dont worry, United just have to think about doing their job and take as many pionts as possible.
And I wrote wrong before, I meant that this was Ronaldos worst performance this season, Giggs was crap today!
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Giggs looked plain old and knackered today. One particular hard tackle from Tom Huddlestone early in the game, ignored. of course, by that crap artist Hattenburg, seemed to just knock the stuffing out of him from then on. SAF seems to want to just keep putting him out there, game after game, but today he really just seemed exhausted. It’s time to give Nani a run. Hargreaves and Scholes looked they could use the same excuse, but they can’t! This ‘tactic’ of shifting Rooney to the wing and Giggs inside smells of Queiroz. Ramos obviously noticed something in the last few games because he set the dogs on Giggsy and Hargreaves didn’t do his job as minder. I didn’t realize he was so soft. City will definitely try to to pull a lot of the same bells next week. Might as well have Anderson out there if Hargreaves can’t find the bottle AND MOVE ROONEY BACK INTO THE MIDDLE!
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this is an excellent article and i totally agree!
theperfect signing for right back would be richards or dani alves! they are both excellent defenders who are threats at set pieces and great on the attack! i would also like to see royston drenthe come in as cover for evra and also as an eventual succsesor!
as for us aquiring a striker my number 1 option would be eto’o! he would fit into are styleof play perfectly, hes got the finishing and the pace!
we should also take a look at the young mexican keeper ochoa! he is deffo 1 for the future!
imagine this team in 2 years time
foster/ochoa richards/alves,rio,vida,evra/drenthe
hargreaves,anderson ronaldo rooney tevez eto’o
subs pique, nani carrick manucho wellbeck/brandy
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