Sir Alex Ferguson said the Carling Cup defeat to Crystal Palace was not a real Manchester United performance, but these days, what is?
Manchester United were rubbish on Wednesday night. Even Sir Alex Ferguson said so. He may not have used that actual word, though you can be sure the fans did and many a lot worse, but when the Manchester United manager offers a public apology for a poor performance something must be up.
United are not immune from poor performances, they go through hot and cold spells like everyone else, but their manager is famously loyal and normally goes to extreme lengths not to be seen to be criticising his players. Everyone can imagine what goes on behind closed doors after horror shows like the Carling Cup exit to Crystal Palace, but when making public pronouncements Ferguson usually makes a point of adopting a measured tone and presenting a united front.
So it can only be assumed, hearing Ferguson talk of "a big disappointment" and saying it was not a Manchester United performance fit to match the club's pride and history, that things went very wrong indeed against Palace. And indeed they did. "My apologies go to the fans because that was not a Manchester United performance," Ferguson said, before correctly congratulating Dougie Freedman and Palace on the excellence of their display. "I also have to apologise to the players who weren't playing. We never expected that."
While it is refreshing to hear Ferguson hold his hands up and admit he got it wrong, there are several points arising from that apology that should not be overlooked in the general reaction of surprise. Firstly, what counts as a real Manchester United performance these days? Ferguson's team went into the Carling Cup quarter-final on the back of two other games at Old Trafford, both of which ended in disappointing draws after the home side had taken the lead. United's record in the last half-dozen home games, in fact, consists of just one league win, by a single goal against Sunderland, and a Champions League victory against the Group C whipping boys Otelul Galati. Those other four results in full? United 1 City 6, United 2 Benfica 2, United 1 Newcastle 1, and United 1 Crystal Palace 2 (aet).
You will note that some of those underwhelming scorelines were achieved by United's first-choice team, the one that features Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic, Javier Hern�ndez and others, so what did Ferguson really expect when he sent out Federico Macheda, Darron Gibson, Mame Biram Diouf et al against a pumped-up outfit looking for a giantkilling result? He evidently did not expect such a flat, lifeless performance, yet looking at the rows of empty seats in the Old Trafford stands on Wednesday night, it was clear that considerable numbers of supporters had read the script in advance. There are all sorts of financial complications to United's unloved and iniquitous ticketing arrangements for cup matches, so it cannot be automatically assumed that fans have started to vote with their feet, they are far more likely to have voted with their pockets instead. Nevertheless, it no longer seems to be true that Carling Cup games are occasions for the priced-out, disenfranchised United supporter to get a look in.
The present United are not so scintillating that fans will fork out over the odds instead of watching them on the telly. Kenny Dalglish warned Liverpool supporters to think carefully before committing themselves to the expense of a trip to Chelsea to watch a weakened team, a strategy that may have lulled the London side into a false sense of security because Liverpool ended up winning. Ferguson used to be the master of that sort of reverse psychology, but it is doubtful whether he has the strength in reserve at the moment to pull it off. Liverpool did not play like a weakened team at Chelsea, partly because in the end Dalglish only made four changes and partly because Craig Bellamy is exactly the sort of player you would choose to come into such a situation. Who was Ferguson hoping would bring all his experience to bear to help the kids out against Palace? Jonny Evans? Dimitar Berbatov? On current form even United's strongest side would struggle against opponents as hard-working and enthusiastic as Palace, so when Ferguson makes wholesale changes people know not to anticipate fireworks.
Though Ferguson may not have been expecting defeat he surely knows by now that United have no automatic right to success, especially with a team of reserves. When his best team went a goal down to Benfica within three minutes in the recent Champions League game, Ferguson said he was not expecting that either. It was an own goal, you see, and the manager's argument was that you just don't expect that sort of bad luck to befall you so early in an important game.
In the circumstances United did well to recover and take the lead. Fair enough, though they only managed to hold that lead for a couple more minutes. And while Phil Jones may have been unfortunate to put through his own goal there was nothing unlucky or freakish about the way Benfica sliced through United with their first attack of the game, advancing directly through midfield and finding a way straight into the penalty area despite the presence of both Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick as a supposed defensive shield in front of the back four. Ferguson did not say whether he was surprised by that. Not many regular spectators seemed to be. "What do you expect?" was a common reaction in discussions afterwards.
One imagines a similar reaction to the limp exit from the Carling Cup. United seem to have been blown off course a bit after a strong start to the season. Not just by the pasting they took in the derby, but by injury to Tom Cleverley, the inability to find a Roy Keane replacement to drive a game from midfield, and Rooney and Hern�ndez both seeing their scoring rate slow down. This may not be an insurmountable problem because United happen to have a fairly comfortable run of fixtures in December, six league games against opponents from the bottom half of the table and only the Champions League trip to Basel slightly tricky. The real team will surely reappear this month, or will it? Manchester United these days. What do you expect?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/dec/01/manchester-united-alex-ferguson
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