ფერგის იმეილზე გავგზავნოთ რა ეს ტაქტიკა
---------------------------------------------------------
ესეც Guardian
Absence of Vidic gives glimpse of why United shine in attack
April 27, 2008 12:11 AM
Reports of the demise of Barcelona must have been greatly exaggerated, given the extent to which they outplayed Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final first leg.
Rumours that United are out on their own as an attacking force also seem wide of the mark. A true attacking team, one confident in their ability to score anywhere, would have made it a priority to bag an away goal or two against a defence lacking its leader because of suspension. When the teams meet again at Old Trafford on Tuesday, Carles Puyol will be back and Barcelona could easily give United a lesson in how to make the away-goals rule work in your favour.
Behind Sir Alex Ferguson's confident bluster, the manager is fully aware of the dangers. It is eight years since United went to Real Madrid as defending European champions and came back from a quarter-final first leg with a scoreless draw that prompted Ferguson to suggest the hard work had been done. That proved to be not quite the case when Real effectively ended the tie by scoring three unanswered away goals inside an hour of the second leg.
Barcelona may not be quite at the level of Raúl and Redondo right now, although they managed to turn United's European clock back by at least 10 years in the first leg, reminding supporters of a time when Ferguson's teams would be regularly passed to death by continental sides with superior technique and ability to hold the ball. Goodness knows what the result might have been had Barcelona been able to call on a fit Ronaldinho or a fully functioning Thierry Henry. Given the uninspiring nature of the first semi at Anfield, it is possible to envisage last year's pattern repeating itself - three English teams in the last four and the prize still ending up abroad. Put it this way - it's not too hard to work out which team neutrals will be rooting for.
Perhaps this is too gloomy a scenario and altogether too harsh on United. A patched-up defence did keep Barcelona scoreless, after all, and with a bit more composure United could have had their away goal in the second minute and maybe another penalty when Rafael Márquez barged Cristiano Ronaldo over. Perhaps United will, as Ferguson and Ronaldo predict, show all their attacking inclinations and blow Barcelona away at Old Trafford.
Yet a team rightly being lauded as the most free-wheeling and unstoppable force domestically showed little faith in its attacking inclinations in Catalonia. In fairness to Ferguson, it is possible his conservatism was forced by the absence of Nemanja Vidic. United's adventurousness when going forward this season has been based on the unbeatable partnership of Rio Ferdinand and Vidic at centre-back, coupled with the extra solidity Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves offer in midfield. Without Vidic, and Ferguson may be forced to do without the Serb on Wednesday after his facial injury yesterday, and with Hargreaves moved to right-back, Ferguson could be excused for thinking four out-and-out attackers at the Nou Camp might be too much of a risk.
It is hard to think of any other explanation for Wayne Rooney on one wing, Park Ji-Sung on the other, Carlos Tevez all over the place and Anderson on the bench. If the idea was to contain Barcelona it just about worked, yet United are closing in on a double because they found a way to allow individuals such as Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez the freedom to interact with each other. To have any chance on Tuesday they will have to revert to this policy pronto. Because with Tevez playing deep and giving the ball away with almost every touch, Ronaldo failing to carry the attack, Rooney fading into insignificance in an unfamiliar position and Park being insignificant to start with, the English title favourites looked just like England's collection of square pegs in round holes when being comprehensively outplayed by Croatia or Portugal.
United supporters will not appreciate that comparison, although it is better than the other thing being said about them. That they played like Liverpool. If their attacking talent is to be unfettered in the second leg, Ferguson needs to take a big decision over the now fitful Paul Scholes, possibly accepting that Anderson can act as a more effective link between midfield and attack, promote Rooney and Tevez to joint strikers and have Ronaldo, Nani, Ryan Giggs or whoever cutting in from the wings. That is how United have attacked all season, and if they are to escape the charge of being Premier League bullies who fail to match La Liga's standard, that's how they should set about outscoring Barcelona.
It all might depend on Vidic's fitness. While Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez have been scoring 74 goals between them this season, he and Ferdinand have been ensuring United do not concede too many and obviating the need for the front four to worry too much about helping their defence. Just as well, on Wednesday's evidence. There can be no real argument about Ronaldo as player of the year. His goals alone mark him out, not to mention the assists and the entertainment value. Yet if it turns out that United's swashbuckling attacking style is dependent on a solid partnership at the heart of defence - indeed, cannot function without it - we will all know where the real credit is due.
-----------------------------------------------------------
United's troubles betray a fraying of confidenceSir Alex Ferguson needs to address flaws in his selection rather than berating officials
Daniel Taylor
April 28, 2008 12:00 AM
Football would be a dull place, of course, if everyone behaved impeccably. Most football fans do not want the sport to be full of Gary Lineker-like goody-goodies. They like the high tackles, the rucks, the argy-bargy and, best of all, the finger-pointing that goes on afterwards. What that tells us about the human race is difficult to know, but the fact is that a lot of people who pay to watch football think of it as part of the entertainment.
It is safe to assume, therefore, that a lot of the crowd at Stamford Bridge on Saturday will just be disappointed that, after one of the few entertaining matches between members of the Big Four this season, they did not hang around long enough to see United's unused players arguing and, in Patrice Evra's case, scrapping with groundstaff and stewards in a row about whether they could go through some light exercises on the pitch.
Sky's cameramen will certainly feel they missed a trick by packing up their equipment so soon after the final whistle. Next time they might also try to get their cameras into the tunnel, bearing in mind the footage they missed as Rio Ferdinand tried to kick a hole through the door of a television interview room and succeeded only in embedding his studs in the ankle of a female steward. In the archives of great tunnel moments, not even Roy Keane's tete-a-tete with Patrick Vieira at Highbury could match the tragicomedy of seeing a £130,000-a-week footballer being incapable of booting a door without inadvertently committing common assault.
Ferdinand has previous for this kind of absurdity so perhaps we should not be too surprised. Once a birdbrain, always a birdbrain, and England's captain-in-waiting will presumably be deeply embarrassed given the amount of praise he has received recently for his apparent extra maturity.
The more revealing sight on Saturday, however, was of Owen Hargreaves, his face contorted with anger, launching a stream of invective towards the fourth official, Mike Riley, at the final whistle. Hargreaves has a reputation as being what is commonly known as the "good pro", a man who quietly gets on with his job, is careful what he says in interviews and makes a point of shaking everyone by the hand at the final whistle. It was a small thing, perhaps, but Chelsea will cling to any grain of hope at this moment. To see such a normally composed footballer lose his head so spectacularly can only encourage their belief that Sir Alex Ferguson's players are not coping as well with the pressure as Avram Grant's.
The champions, lest it be forgotten, are only two wins away from moving within one of Liverpool's total of 18 titles and their remaining fixtures look easier than Chelsea's. But the worrying thing for United's supporters is that their players seldom looked in control of their own destiny. This is supposed to be a time for cool heads yet Chelsea, with the exception of the deplorable Didier Drogba, dished out a lesson in level-headedness.
Ferguson himself was more empurpled than ever, his face full of worry lines and bags, looking every bit like an officer from the Serious Crime Squad. He needed to be calm in his television interviews but he opted instead to turn each one into a diatribe about the standard of officiating in United's recent matches. Carlos Queiroz, his assistant, went even further, questioning whether Cristiano Ronaldo and co would need to be shot to win a penalty.
Perhaps they actually meant it, or maybe it was just another of Ferguson's ploys to forge a siege mentality for the rest of the season. Whichever way you look at it, both men conveniently ignored the most salient point of all, namely that they had experimented with the wrong team and inexplicably left out Ronaldo in a match Ferguson had described as "unquestionably the biggest game of the season". As for Ferguson's description of Alan Wiley's decision to award a penalty against Michael Carrick as "absolutely diabolical", that can be described only as, well, classic Ferguson.
Chelsea will have put together all the clues and come to the conclusion that United are getting nervous. Just as worryingly for Ferguson, so will Barcelona.
· 
Manchester United Supporters Association, The RED world
