Buy Buy Or Bye Bye …
It was fitting that for their first match of the season at Old Trafford, Joel and Bryan Glazer chose to attend United’s absorbing struggle with Chelsea.
The Glazer boys were treated to a match rich in entertainment, which ebbed and flowed throughout. They will have noted how good United were in the first half and equally, how the team wilted in the second period. Disturbingly, they will have recognised the ease with which the opposition changed the game by the introduction of quality substitutes.
If daddy Glazer receives a report of the game from his sons, it should contain one sentence underlined in red ink: “Urgent! New players needed now!”
The ease with which José Mourinho has ‘won’ the spin war in the aftermath of the match is testimony only to his side’s second half strong finish. Mourinho is not so much the braggart to be unaware that his team failed to start like champions. Chelsea’s defensive frailties were underlined again. The midfield lacked width and could find no rhythm and urgency until the game’s half-way point. The expensively assembled strike force was largely anonymous, so that a team boasting some of the finest players in the division, was reduced to speculative long shots, comfortably dealt with by United’s defence. In truth, had Sir Alex’s men been more clinical in their finishing, the game would have been made safe long before Carvalho’s equaliser.
Sir Alex can be pleased with the tempo of his side’s first half display and the assured manner in which the Scholes – Carrick axis put to rest any lingering doubts that it can compete with the best. Ferguson will have been reassured that man for man, United’s first 11 are the equal of the champions.
That said, Sir Alex and Mourinho both agreed that the match was there for United’s taking and that the draw was an opportunity lost for the home side. Chelsea got out of jail because Mourinho was brave in his tactical readjustments and crucially because his substitute’s bench allowed him so to be. United, on the other hand, could point to no-one who would have noticeably improved the side’s output or given it a better chance of sneaking a goal when the chips were down. On Chelsea’s bench sat Joe Cole, Robben, Ferreira and Boulahrouz. United could call on Silvestre, Fletcher, O’Shea and Evra, personnel who collectively did little to inspire when all the world could see that United needed another goal, motivation and deliverance.
In particular, there was not one striker on the bench, a terrifying admission of the grievous paucity of United’s reserve strength. Chelsea drove forward and pinned United back for long periods during the second half because they understood that Sir Alex’s troops had already hit maximum and had nothing else with which to surprise.
Jose Mourinho pointed to this fact gleefully. He said: “The United bench is a good one but it’s true that they have no attacking players there. Solskjaer is injured, the Korean player Park is injured so they have not got that type of player on the substitutes’ bench. That is not perfect for them.”
The introduction of a fresh attacker might not have changed the game in United’s favour but it might have given the home side fresh momentum and an element of unpredictability in the closing stages. In any case, the option should have been available to a club of United’s size and title ambition.
United should enter the December and January period freshly confident that this season they can overhaul Chelsea. To that end, United must invest heavily in the team to make up for a failure to act decisively last summer. Sir Alex has performed wonders keeping his team competitive as Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool have floundered. His work should not be undone because a club £660 million in debt cannot sign the striker and midfielder needed to take the team forward.
However, as has already been noted in these pages, obvious need might not translate into action. Fans should be primed for more top level bleating about the inability to prise the desired player from his club and the unwillingness of said club to do business with United at sensible prices. If resort is made to the same carping heard last summer when United signed just two players in three months, the club will deserve the criticism it will receive.
Fans will roar their approval if United are able to bring in substantial reinforcements during the winter transfer window. Otherwise, the only sound the Glazer family is likely to hear next April and May will be that of chickens coming home to roost. AU
© Copyright: Absolutely United 2006
