Jan 11
Questions Continue to be Asked of United After Another Draw
Let’s be clear here: let’s just stop making excuses for our team. We can go on about our dominant possession; throw stats out in the air on how much of pitch area our players covered. And perhaps go on a rant about sides parking their bus against us. Or, how unfair Cameron Jerome’s goal was.
But what’s the point?
Oh, we can say United will never die. That is probably true, beyond the rhetoric nature of the chant. Even a side as wretched as Portsmouth — despite all the rumblings of discontent — will eventually find a benefactor to bail it out of trouble. As Simon Kuper in his book Soccernomics — or as it’s sold in the UK: ‘Why England Never Win‘ — said, football clubs are institutions, a reflection of strong community roots, and most of them will be bailed out eventually. Especially the big clubs are — as the phrase, we’ve become all too familiar with in this economy, goes — too big to fail.
A vast number of United fans’ support will also not die either. At least, I’ll speak for myself here. But is that really the point?
Saying we will never die, while rousing in its appeal in the terraces and perfect in a match scenario to raise player spirits, is terribly escapist when used outside like it was some sort of elixir. It’s a diversionary tactic; an LSD shot, if you will, when faced with a gloomy scenario, hoping said shot will make the disappointment go away. But we fans are not a monolith of homogeneous emotion. Different fans react to it in their own ways, and if this makes them feel better, then power to them.
But yours truly has grown a bit weary over the course of the season.
It’s not that we may not win anything that gets me. I have, at the start of the season said I don’t mind if we don’t win anything if we are making a definite transition towards a solid, better future. A season where we might frustrate dropping points, yet stay close to our philosophy of attack-minded free flowing football.
The constant refuge a lot of fans take in is to point to our league position. Considering how badly Liverpool are, how inconsistent both Chelsea and Arsenal have been we’re still second in the table, they would say. But if we’re second when the rest of the ‘big four’ have been average that’s not saying much about us now is it?
They will say we’ve lost Ronaldo and Tevez, so this will be a season of struggle. True, but it’s not like we gave Ronaldo for free is it now? We may struggle but have we been proactive enough in the transfer window to make a positive difference to our squad? Ferguson said we have cash to burn, but then goes on with his spiel that there is no value in this market.
Really?
I am not prepared to buy that. There’s enough evidence that, when you look properly, the right personnel could be got for value. Either we aren’t looking at the right kind of players, or we are skint.
But back to the Brum game. We attacked in numbers, but did we really have shots on goals that counted in the first half? Our goal was an own goal deflection for fuck’s sake! Some assorted half-chances — arguably Birmingham had better ones than us — and that was the game. The desire seemed to be there, but — and here’s the kicker — the quality was missing.
You can’t always blame the players or the tactics. Sometimes you just need someone who gives you that edge. Someone who makes Rooney look good. Someone who raises the game for you when the chips are down. Resilience, hard work, determination, Park-mindedness (or Park-arsedness) can only bring you so far. Flair gets you the extra inch. Last season we ground out victories, and we’ve done so every season.
Which brings us back to the deficiencies in the squad.
You’d have thought these reverses might have forced Ferguson’s hand in bringing someone in the January window. But all you hear are about having the money to burn but not finding value in the market. Well, then good luck finding value in the summer after the World Cup. There is the other almost Wengeresque quote from SAF about getting young players and nurturing them like we’ve always done. As far as I can see, we’ve invested in young stars and prospects and mixed them up with old heads. Scholes, Giggs and Neville have quite evidently tailed off this season. Giggs less so than Scholes, but still.
There is talk from the manager about Berbatov needing exploratory surgery, now. Interestingly, there was an article in the News of the World a few weeks ago about the Bulgarian requiring surgery which Ferguson brushed aside. Now the admission comes a few weeks later from the manager himself.
Another aspect of the manager that has begun to perplex me is his blaming the referees. Up to a limit, it serves as a diversionary tactic. You’d have thought he’d collect himself, and perhaps refrain from blaming the refs for our general shitness. Last week it was about added time against Leeds, this time it was about Fletcher’s sending off. Sometimes even we as fans have to hold our hands up and say, bollocks! We’re just shit.
I won’t end this with a ‘we’ll never die’ comment. That is assumed, and will go against the grain of what I’ve been trying to convey. Which is, regardless of how well we’ve been throughout Ferguson’s tenure, we should be able to call a spade a spade; in our case a rusty one at that — without being told we’re negative, knee jerk, and love to be so for the heck of it. If this is considered knee jerk, then it has to be the slowest knee to jerk in the history of mankind.
I would love to be proven wrong. Note: being proven wrong does not mean scrapping to win the title. Being proved wrong is to suddenly turn a corner and play like we were Barcelona in their pomp, or something. Which I think is unlikely and unreasonable to expect. But being proved wrong should at least mean showing enough during the rest of the season that this side is capable of growing and challenging for the future seasons.
The end.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Betting Preview: Manchester United set to thump Burnley
- Blah, Blah, Blah… Waffle, Waffle, Waffle…
- Three Questions for Manchester United
- Gill on City and Ronaldo
- Competition Terms.
Tags: Match Reports
Craig Mc (195)
RedDevilEddy (170)
Opti (136)
Moscow is my heaven (96)
Ian (95)
@CraigMc: But banks/financial institutions aren’t United fans and they will lend if they see cold hearted business logic. No amount of fan protest is going to help. Only when fans vote with their pockets by not going to matches is it going to work. And that we all know is impossible right now because, like it or not, one set will be replaced by another set of willing fans.
No amount of open mismanagement by Hicks and Gillet has deterred the mob in Liverpool in terms of gate receipts, so what are chances of that here?
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@Red Ranter: Thats the whole point though RR, IF United fans told the financiers they were going to do the things I mentioned in my last post, and KEPT to it, then Financiers would know they were on to a loser right – because there would be no profits. But like you say – it is up to United faithful to get together and they all have to do it and be prepared to keep it up. I think you will find RR that they will not be replaced by another bunch of folk only too willing – not if all the Mancs were involved!
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@Red Ranter: I have no argument with that. In fact I am hoping your remember a few posts that I have written where I have praised Fergie enough by even saying the job he is doing this year may very well be his greatest coaching job by season ever. He is using mirrors or some kind of magic because frankly, despite the way they are playing and the clear lack of skill and quality in the middle of the park, he has got us in second place and the final 16 in the Champions League. I have predicted nearly everything that has happened this season but I have been wrong in one area, total points. We are losing as many as I predicted but somehow we are still scratching out more points than i expected. It does help however to see the other big three struggling too. That has kept us in it. Fergie has been forced to adopt a lot of his negative tactics and squad manipulations out of sheer necessity. We may not like a lot of it and much of it is still wrong but thanks to him the team has overachieved in my opinion.
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@Grognard: This post on Tevez brought tears to my eyes. As you know, I was/is/was/is huge on Tevez and knew that it would be the best move for him to move on
Why is it that what you’re saying is so obvious (except for the Rooney = Owen part…might be true, but I can’t see it either), but still people fail to see that?
I asked a question earlier, and no one bothered responding…
What about the idea of starting a supporters fund and try to buy back the club? How would a person go about such a thing? The way I figure, United have a few million supporters worldwide. Surely it is possible?
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@Stephen: We would be better but we would still struggle to break teams down and score goals against good teams. Diarra is a defensive player and Neuer a keeper. We are really more in desperate need of a striker that can play off of Rooney and a midfielder who can create chances.
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@Grognard: The same team that he assembled.
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@colver: It really isn’t about 4-4-2 or any tactical setup as much as it is about the quality of players. Last year we went to Arsenal and whacked them good playing 4-5-1. The difference is we went and beat them with pace and great counter attacking football. For me it was the game of the season because it was United playing a top opponent on the road in a fearless fashion. Today we got to the Burnley’s and Birmingham’s of the world and not just play 4-5-1, but do so in the typical cowardly manner that has become our most recent MO. We have many of the same players who were with the club when we beat Roma 7-1 yet Fergie has stripped many of those players of their natural instincts and expressiveness by taking away their pace and guile. When we attack with pace we are a formidable side to contend with, even without Ronaldo and Tevez. Few teams can cope with pace and pressure when it’s properly organized. By slowing the game down and boring teams with back pass after back pass you not only get them off the hook, but you also allow them to think more about counter attacking themselves because they do not have to fear us. It’s diabolically stupid in my opinion considering that back in 07/08 we played fast attacking football and still had over 60% of the possession in most games.
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New post up.
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@jamie lee: Fergie’s stubbornness to continually use Paul Scholes and use him inadequately is the real problem. Every time we play 4-5-1 Scholes is in there taking away the role of a striker yet he has no pace or legs anymore and is nothing more than a liability. If you are going to use him, don’t use him like a DMF, use up front around the box where some of his old attacking instincts can still be used. Otherwise, not using Owen borders on insane.
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@CraigMc: There is enough similarity mate that makes them incompatible when playing together. Rooney may not be as good as Owen playing off the shoulder of the last defender but he is also unable to playthe second striker role with Owen as the main striker and vice versa. They are both fast pacey players who like the ball at their feet and in front of them and that alone makes them unable to blend well together.
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@Red Ranter: Actually, I think both Owen and Rooney would function better with an Emile Heskey type. That is why Fergie got Berbatov, except that Berbatov may have the ball control but his lack of pace and effort slows us down to such a degree that it kills our openings.
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@CraigMc: You can’t go after after the banks mate, thats a futile gesture big time. Banks are out to make money and they don’t care about a team and it’s fans. No it’s the Glazer’s we need to go after and we need to make it so miserable for them to even show their faces in Manchester that one day soon hopefully, they will just say this isn’t worth the effort and sell. Lynch the Glazer’s I say……and seriously, I’m not kidding. A public hanging is just what they deserve.
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@Karl: One would have to start a non profit organization, get licensing and legal assistance to make sure it is run on the up and up and then start a web site like MUST and start taking donations which would be put into a trust fund. It’s a lot of work and for it to really work well, the group or individual who starts it should live in Manchester or at least in England for obvious reasons. I for one would donate to it if it was to start up. The other problem is accumulating all this money and it doesn’t get the Glazer’s to sell, then what?
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@CraigMc: Fan unrest, demonstrations, banners at the games etc. may do one thing;- make them spend on players before they plan on doing so. Ferguson could help here too, if he would just abandon his “buy 18 yearolds and cross my fingers” policy, and lobbied along with the fans for some more spending money!!
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@Grognard: I agree with that. Put a big man in the box to create some havoc and Rooney and maybe Owen would just feast on the scraps.
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In case that comment got squeezed out, here I go, once again:
New post up.
You can carry on your discussion there. For one, the thread will load faster.
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@scot
you said:
“United aren’t playing well enough, that’s a given. Fortunately, nobody else is either.”
the second sentence is unnecessary. i don’t support other teams. i don’t care how they play. it’s not about united relative to other teams . it’s about united relative to the standards set by united teams.
d
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