'Alex Ferguson has done supremely well to create yet another Manchester United team ready to mount a genuine challenge for the Premiership title'. So said the commentator during yesterdays encounter between United and Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Absolute codswallop.
United are clearly now a force to be reckoned with, but it is a scandal that it has taken them so long to compete consistently for the Premiership again since the decline of Roy Keane and co began over three years ago. Ferguson was far too slow to address the problems right in front of him. One need only look at their opponents yesterday to see how a ruthless approach is crucial when rebuilding a team. Arsene Wenger has culled Patrick Viera, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell and now Freddie Ljungberg and the result is a precocious, vibrant team that, although too inexperienced to compete this time around will be right in the mixer next season.
Ferguson's record at Manchester United is beyond reproach- 24 trophies in 20 years as manager, including eight Premiership titles and a European Cup, are figures that are unlikely to ever be rivalled in the modern game. However, in recent years, his powers have sadly and undeniably been on the wane. United have not won the Premiership since 2002/03, having been overtaken firstly by Arsenal and more recently Chelsea. Ferguson's biggest mistake was the refusal to recognise the need to replace an ageing spine. He held on to Keane for too long, and the players he signed as replacements were quite simply not good enough- Kleberson, Liam Miller and Eric Djemba-Djemba have long since left the club with their tails between their legs. He displayed the stubbornness of an old-man in refusing to admit he needed to make a high profile central midfield signing to replace Keane, recently making do instead with Fletcher, O'Shea, and even a striker in Smith, none of whom would be first choice in that position at most of the clubs in the top division. This streak also reared its head when it came to filling the goalkeeping position, Edwin van der Sar's recruitment coming after a season dithering between the initially impressive Tim Howard and the perennially incompetent Roy Carroll.
What is ironic is that Ferguson's defining moment as a manager came when he cut loose Paul Ince, Andrei Kanchelskis and Mark Hughes at the end of the trophyless 1994-95 season. The experts thought he had gone mad, but Beckham, Scholes, Neville and Butt proved he had made the right decision. He had judged exactly the right moment to shift the balance of his team, and the youth combined perfectly with the experience of Cantona and Schmeichel to win the Premiership title. Wenger has followed this blueprint to perfection, and although success may take his side longer to come by, they are undoubtedly going the right way. While Ferguson may not have youngsters of the same quality as Wenger coming through, this cannot be used as an excuse as he has hardly been short of backing in the transfer market.
To that respect, can Ferguson really be credited as being a genius for spending 30million on Rio Ferdinand, 31million on Wayne Rooney, 18million on Carrick and 12million each on Ronaldo and Saha and and finally hitting on a successful formula. The team's improvement this year can be put down to the coming-of-age of Ronaldo and the return to form of Giggs and Scholes more than the manager's cunning.
While Ferguson's man-management may be as sharp as ever, so off has his tactical radar been at times in recent years that he has actually proved a hindrance rather than a boon to the outstanding talent at his disposal. The hallmark of Ferguson's sides of the nineties was their dashing attacking play, centering around the speed of Giggs, the accuracy of Beckham, and craft and dynamism up-front. All this was backed up by the driving force of Keane and Scholes. The formation was 4-4-2, not flash, but the best of British and damned effective.
Yesterday, United fans must have been scratching their heads as Ferguson went with 4-5-1 and Rooney on the left. It is a formation he has favoured in European games initially since the arrival of Veron and van Nistelrooy, and is one which has proved singularly ineffective. United have not got past the quarter-finals of the European Cup since they started using this formation. It compromises the main strength of Ferguson's teams- attacking at pace, yet he is too stubborn to admit defeat and persists still. It cost them dear yesterday as with a team full of attacking talent they failed to look capable of scoring the crucial second goal and paid for it with defeat. Rather than settling for one-nil, he should have trusted his fowards to put the game beyond Arsenal.
United are at their best with two mobile forwards, to that end their improvement since the departure of the cumbersome and selfish van Nistelrooy is no surprise. His goal-scoring record is clearly phenomenal, but his penalty-box mentality helped to make United one-paced and predictable in the long-term. His and Veron's signing's hint at Ferguson's surprising insecurity in his own tactics in the wake of United's European Cup success. He tried to change the team's style, to create a super-team to dominate Europe, and Veron, van Nistelrooy and the shift to 4-5-1 would be the final pieces in the jigsaw. Rather like Woody Allen trying to make serious films, it didn't work. He should have stuck with what he knew, it worked.
With his achievements at Aberdeen and Manchester United Alex Ferguson has earnt the right to be considered among the top tier of managers that the game has known. However, these successes should not cloud analysis of his performance in recent years, which have simply not been up to scratch with the resources at his disposal. Sadly, it is the continued exellence of his great rival Arsene Wenger which shows this up in the clearest light.
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