An Ingredient (Ronaldo) Sir Alex will not find at the Carrington kitchen or Old Trafford restaurant anymore, Chef Ferguson will have to get his flair from somewhere else.
Well I know I have been criticised by some readers (for my past blogs) about me focusing on the English League and yes it is true and I accept it. Having said that so far the English League is the earliest to kick off so in my last blog I touched a bit about Manchester United and today they came back like a wounded beast pouncing on Wigan, 5-0. What makes this win even more sweeter is that all the strikers scored; Rooney (two) Berbatov and Michael Owen, it was great for Michael Owen, you could almost literally see a burden lifted off his shoulders, his smile or laughter said it all. As if that was not enough, Nani who said that he would fill in the shoes of Ronaldo scored with a beautiful free-kick.
This performance though still does not answer the question of whether United still need to buy a world class player to fill the void left by Ronaldo and Tevez. But it goes a long way to boosting confidence, let us not forget that United have Ferdinand, Anderson, Hargraves and even Vidic (who missed the first two games) on the injured list. Nevertheless United have been successful not just because of Ronaldo and Tevez in the past, imagine now if Ronaldo and Tevez were at Stoke City or Burnley, do you think Stoke or Burnley would win the Premier League? I doubt it, the solidness of United is in their soldiers who are all above average. Players like O'Shea, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Anderson, Da Silva twins, Brown, Fletcher, Nani, Kuszack, Foster, etc Well you get my point.
All this players give the flair players or Generals like Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov to stand on a platform and play with a swashbuckling style that allows them the license to thrill and roam and take risks with those turns, chops, mazy dribbles or cheeky backheels. With Tevez and Ronaldo gone United have not come weak overnight, they just need flair players or they need those who took a backseat to finally "show-up" .
This does not include Rooney who has always been there for the cause, but it is time for Berbatov and Nani to step up. Antonio Valencia is already shaping up to be a player that is going to bring some memorable times for United, but if Nani's performance against Wigan is anything to go by, we might see a player who might not only be instrumental for United, but could go on to win the player of the year award in England.
Nani once said, "In Portugal the players are encouraged to be very individualistic and they seem to be confident on the ball, but when I came to United I had to take time to adjust here in the English league, as there was a system in place for all players to follow and each had their roles drawn out specifically, it took time for me to adjust."
Indeed, but Nani should by now know Sir Alex doesn't want all his players to be robots, his philosophy is solidness coupled with a bit of flair. You could almost imagine Sir Alex a Chef sprinkling a tinge of flair in a cooking pot and careful not to put too much of "Ronaldo" inside, right now though Sir Alex will need more of flair.
The lack of a good central midfielder also seems to be the problem, ever since Keane left and with Hargraves being injury prone this position will be hard to fill, but with all the injured players coming back soon including new signing Gabriel Obertan of France, United will be stronger than expected.
Sir Alex however has sidestepped the issue of a strong central midfield position by deploying two out and out wingers in Valencia and Nani and now this seems to work like a charm. Against Wigan Valencia finally made cut-ins to the infield, which he rarely makes and this caused problems for Wigan, while Nani tied Wigan's players in knots and twists.
A good result no doubt, but next week will see if this juggernaut can out do the kings of flairs, Arsenal in a clash at Old Trafford. By the way If United fans still need comfort that Ronaldo and Tevez will not be missed...Robson, Cantona,Schmeichel , Beckham, Van Nistelrooy, Keane...nuff said!
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