The Lessons Of Celtic Park …
What good can emerge from the rubble of Celtic Park?
Sir Alex should take some heart from the fact that his team was not annihilated north of the border. Reports confirm the “hairdryer” was in loud working order after the game but the manager ought to know that even Hoops’ boss Gordon Strachan was staggered by Celtic’s luck. He quipped that he “needed to check teletext” to make sure the result was real and he wasn’t dreaming.
Faint hearts and fellow travellers have moved quickly to damn the manager and players where not two weeks ago they were happy to hail them as kings. Celtic wouldn’t have scored against United from open play if the match continued until Sunday. Their only chance was from a dead ball position and in Nakamura, Celtic had someone able to seize that opportunity. That’s football. If Ronaldo or Saha had shown similar accuracy minutes later, United would have celebrated and justice would have been served.
However, Sir Alex should now admit the mistake of trying to play the canny, continental game of doing enough for a draw but not going flat out to win a match. It is true that United’s gung-ho style has seen them come unstuck in the past. But six years on from the fabled home defeat at the hands of Real Madrid, United have hardly enjoyed success trying to play within themselves.
Playing the “United way” might also deliver a precious victory or two in an away fixture. When the time comes to travel, United players board the team bus and climb into a continental straight jacket. The side retains a decent home record in Europe but the frequent inability to win away, suggests a mental fragility that the manager must tackle.
Managerial instruction to the players to “keep it simple,” “quieten the crowd” and give a “controlled” performance,” is understandable. But the players seem to take that counsel as an invitation to timidity and a directive to be unadventurous. In Europe unlike the Premiership, the opposition comes to bury and not to worship. United had their pockets picked against both Copenhagen and Celtic, when their superiority demanded better reward. The team only just scraped through against Benfica, a match in which frankly, it deserved very little for showing excessive caution.
Attacking the opposition from the start is not the naive ploy some would imagine, because surely United have the players equipped for such a task. This is not a template for rampaging indiscipline but rather, an unfashionable but often effective British approach which would allow the team to build up a head of steam and dictate the game in more threatening areas of the pitch. The playbook for away matches is set in stone - evaluate then strike. United observe the first stage scrupulously but seem to get lost trying to follow through on the second command.
For all United’s neat passing and movement and the myriad subtle interchanges at Celtic Park, the team was reduced mostly to speculative shots from distance. So ruthless and incisive in recent weeks, United carved out but one genuine opportunity against Celtic and Louis Saha was unequal to the task of putting the ball in the net. His finishing mirrored the overall performance at Celtic and on a previous night in Copenhagen. United rarely got beyond second gear and paid a heavy price for their lack of application. Saha, though he has apologised for his missed effort, deserves no reproach. Comments in the national press and elsewhere that he is “grazing in the scapegoats’ paddock,” or that RVN would have tucked the penalty away because he has a big match temperament and “the butterflies in his stomach fly in formation” are as unfair as they are irrelevant.
Playing at a higher tempo would allow United to develop the rhythm and fluency they achieve in the Premiership. It seems obvious that coherency is the key to winning performance. What good can come from sticking Rooney out on the wing where his influence is lessened? What is the point of asking United’s midfielders to remain so close to the defence that they cannot maintain effective lines of communication with the attack, forcing the strikers to roam ever deeper in search of the ball? Of course, tactical adjustments must be made in the face of a new and dangerous challenge. But United must also show trust in their own talents and methods. The team had the means to dismantle Celtic and failed to do so out of an unwillingness to show its hand and impose its will on the opposition early enough. Such failure raised the spirits of a weaker opponent to United’s cost.
The Celtic Park ‘contest’, in such stark contrast to United’s imperious domestic form, will serve as a reminder to Sir Alex, the players and importantly, those who control the purse strings, that the team still needs investment if it is to capitalise on impressive early season displays. Sir Alex complains that United were unable to translate their possession into goals.
Yet on the substitutes bench, Kieran Richardson was the only contender for a attacking position, if the manager had wished to shake up his line-up. United’s lack of striking resources is an old gripe but one which bears repeating with every setback. The Daily Mail got it right when it stated: “European troubles have served to remind Ferguson that a squad who have performed so well in the Premiership remain a couple of players light for the Champions League.” The transfer window cannot come soon enough.
December’s game with Benfica is an opportunity for United to redeem themselves after throwing away the chance of effortless qualification for the next round of the competition. As Sir Alex has said, United always have to do it the hard way. The United players will be freed from the shackles of the cat and mouse approach used in away matches and should overcome the Portuguese visitors. If they don’t, le deluge. AU
© Copyright: Absolutely United 2006
