RedsUnite: a man utd blog

Yeah, I don’t really know anything about the match last night that I didn’t read in the papers. It wasn’t televised here in the States and I had to work during the match, so I wasn’t able to Sopcast it either. Poor me.

From what I’ve read, however, there seem to be a few talking points:

• Sir Alex needs to stop favoring “over-the-hill” experienced types
• Giggs looked horrible and Scholes not much better
• Rooney was ineffectual as the lone striker and should have done better with the chances he was offered
• Ferdinand was a couple of feet away from one of the greatest calamities in Champions League history
• Nani and Tevez added an instantaneous spark to the side and should not be left out
• Rooney’s attitude leaves something to be desired
• Benzema is a going to cost us a fortune

Looks like I didn’t need to see this match anyhow. These talking points aren’t exactly unfamiliar. I’m not going to spend much time talking about the match, as I will only be able to draw conclusions based on what I’ve seen from us previously.

I would like to mention one thing, however. Over at Red Rants, Red Addict states:

“I can understand Fergie’s desire to use experience players like Giggs and Scholes in European games, however, when it comes at the expense of playing blossoming young talent like Nani and Tevez then questions need to be asked.

We looked alot more dangerous today when Tevez and Nani were on the pitch, no doubt about that. The pace and trickery puts opposition on the back foot when they have attacking players coming from every angle. Lyon were terrified of us in that last 20 minutes or so. This is the type of football we need to win games. Tevez has a goal every other game or something! And Nani is assist leader by a mile despite barely playing! His crossing is phenomenal and led to yet another goal tonight.

THEN, once ahead in games, it makes sense to bring on people like Giggs and Scholes. Experienced players, who know how to keep possession and see out games. Scholes is the master at slowing a game down and effortlessly keeping possession. Giggs too has the experience to know when to keep it simple and hold the ball.”

Cheers to that and well said. There is alot of talk surrounding Giggs and Scholes as though their presence in the side is all-or-nothing. Clearly they aren’t the players they were in 1999, but that does not mean that they should be voted off the island. They have plenty to offer the side, just in a smaller, more strictly defined role. While they both possess the skill set to provide those game changing moments in a match, the possibility of such a moment is becoming increasingly offset by what they may lack otherwise. I’m more speaking of Giggs than Scholes when I say this, as Scholes returned from injury relatively recently so I am inclined to give him another game or two. How Ferguson deals with this moving forward, especially in the CL, will be a good measure of his objectivity as a manager. While remaining objective must be difficult considering the wealth of positive memories players like Giggs and Scholes have provided over their illustrious tenures at the club, Fergie can not forsake the present while longing for a past that is just that.

Well we should fancy ourselves as the luckiest side in Europe today. We narrowly escaped what may have been the death knell for our European ambitions. Tevez stole us an equalizer, giving us a reprieve from what certainly would have been a massive disappointment. Our inability to establish any semblance of consistency in the past month is troubling, to put it lightly, but let’s just be thankful that we have been awarded one more chance to figure it out.