The Scottish Enigma …
How bad a player is Darren Fletcher?
Unlike any United regular since the dark days of Ralph Milne, debate on the 22 year old midfielder quickly centres on his perceived limitations. He rarely delights the United faithfull with his shooting skills. His scoring average is one goal every 20 games. No-one speaks of his free-kicks or corners. His passing barely rises beyond the ordinary. He lacks pace and the physical strength for crunching tackles. With such a resumé, many fans want to know why Darren Fletcher is still a United player?
Nevertheless, Fletcher has more than ninety competitive games under his belt for United, was once referred to as the ‘future’ of the club by Sir Alex Ferguson and has been likened to no less a player than Lothar Matthaus by former Scotland boss Bertie Vogts.
Routinely loathed by fans but adored by some of football’s wisest professionals, it seems that with Flecher there is no middle ground.
Whisper it softly but perhaps the player went some way towards rebuilding his reputation among United fans with a fine goal against Charlton last week.The glorious shimmy that took out Jonathan Fortune and opened up acres of space in front of the Charlton goal before Fletcher’s thrilling finish, was a glimpse of the ability to which Sir Alex and others have consistently referred.
As a youngster, Fletcher was considered a great prospect in Scotland and Ferguson moved quickly to take the Edinburgh-born teenager to Old Trafford after Rangers, Newcastle and Liverpool expressed interest. The manager so believed in the midfielder that only red tape prevented him from blooding a then 16 year old Fletcher in the first team in 1999.
‘Darren has a chance,’ Ferguson has said. ‘He has had a difficult start to his career at the club, suffering a broken foot which fractured again when he came back too soon, then missing 10 weeks with an ankle injury. But he has very good ability and there is a lot of common sense about his play.’
Alas, common sense isn’t as sexy an attribute as the balletic beauty of a Ryan Giggs in his prime, leaving a trail of defenders behind him as he ran down the wing. Nor does it compare with a pinpoint Beckham cross or a wonder goal from the halfway line. A Scholes thunderbolt from 25 yards, is the raw material of dreams when put against Fletcher’s more modest output. And of course, who could stand up to the clench-fisted range of Roy Keane’s game?
Measured against such greatness, Darren Fletcher’s ‘sensible play’ holds all the charm of cold porridge. Many United fans, reared on a generation of world class midfielders, have little time for an international captain derided as ‘the Scottish player.’ Supporters with older memories might be tempted towards a comparison between Fletcher and bit-part United players of the 70’s and 80’s like Ashley Grimes and David McCreery, who hung around for season after season as side-kicks to the stars.
Fergie however, sees Fletcher as a far more substantial prospect and used his injury setback in April 2005 as evidence of a growing significance to the United side.
‘People look at Darren as an up-and-coming young player but they do not understand how important he is to our team,’ Ferguson said. ‘He has been missing for eight weeks and, during that time, our results have altered and we have lost the midfield dominance we were enjoying.’
Is this the same player United fans have been watching? Few would have expected Fletcher and ‘midfield dominance’ to be mentioned in the same sentence.
Certainly the manager appeared to change tack during the second half of last season when he relegated the midfielder to the subs bench. By then Fletcher appeared even more laboured and wore a near permanent grimace. Fletcher rarely looks like he is enjoying his football and the early part of this year, as Giggs and O’Shea ran United’s midfield, was nothing short of a personal catastrophe. The arrival of Michael Carrick and the frantic pursuit of Owen Hargreaves were hardly the boost his confidence needed for the new term.
In his defence, Fletcher might complain that being forced to play out of position on the right wing, has not helped him to win over a sceptical audience. Early injuries may have stalled his physical development too.
It is now forgotten that it was Roy Keane, so contemptuous of Fletcher last November, who in friendlier times, recognised his talent and tried to recruit the player for the Republic of Ireland.
‘Ireland phoned me up a few times. I had Roy Keane asking me as well. I just told him I was planning on playing for Scotland, and that was it.’
Time will reveal whether Fletcher has it within him to emerge from a spell of poor form and corroborate the admiring judgement of Sir Alex, Scotland manager Walter Smith and Bertie Vogts.
It is to be hoped that Fletcher takes confidence from his fine goal at the Valley and seizes enthusiastically his first team opportunities. AU
© Copyright: Absolutely United 2006
