Henry Winter- Sir Alex Fergusons team selections keep Manchester United players hungry
24 Oct 2009 - 21:11:05
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson emerged from the dressing room at Valencia's Mestalla a few years back and challenged a passing group of journalists to name his team-sheet.
We had a go. "Nine out of 11 right,'' smiled the Manchester United manager. "Never try to guess my mind!''
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Applying Ferguson's Mestalla test, just try to list United's first-choice midfield. Antonio Valencia, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher and Ryan Giggs? Or Ji-Sung Park, Michael Carrick, Anderson and Nani?
Or Gabriel Obertan, Darron Gibson, Owen Hargreaves and the versatile John O'Shea, who can happily play in midfield, as shown on Champions League duty at CSKA Moscow last week.
Scouting United must be a nightmare. The spies from the Kremlin must have looked at Ferguson's starting midfield in the Luzhniki Stadium and observed rhetorically: "And Winston Churchill considered us a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma!''
Ferguson fielded O'Shea and Scholes in the centre, Valencia and Nani on the flanks with Anderson pushing on in support of Dimitar Berbatov. (Carrick was on the bench with Danny Welbeck, whom Ferguson has used wide).
Ferguson's tactics worked in Moscow. Revered as the scene of their 2008 Champions League triumph, the city may also be remembered as the setting where Valencia came of age as a United player.
Hitherto diffident following his £16 million move from Wigan, questions were asked by fans over whether the Ecuadorean had the belief to play for United. Some footballers freeze on stepping into Old Trafford, looking up at all those tiers of expectant faces.
For two months, Valencia did not take on left-backs, too often playing it safe and laying the ball off. Not in Moscow. Valencia was flying from the first minute, even scoring four minutes from the end, a moment that will swell his confidence even more.
Not one to swagger, Valencia could become a star in a midfield free of egos since Ronaldo's departure (although Nani needs to stop admiring himself, and start hurting opponents). Nani apart, all of Ferguson's midfielders possess the United work ethic, that remarkable desire that keeps them going to the very death.
The mood is set by Giggs, as hungry now as when he first glided into opposition nightmares at the Theatre of Dreams. Ditto Scholes, similarly committed to the causes. He scores goals, he mistimes tackles, he goes home. Fletcher is a similarly conscientious character.
When Hargreaves is fit, the mobile ball-winner will surely push for inclusion in the starting XI, but which of the central midfielders could Ferguson possibly omit? Scholes' use of the ball the drilled long pass or his trademark dink around the corner demands his presence while Fletcher's energy is vital.
Eight midfielders are disappointed each game yet whatever decision Ferguson makes it will be accepted. United by name, united by nature.
Ferguson has gathered a collection of supreme professionals and keeps them fresh and happy, rotating them. Each sweats for the team. Each contributes goals. Giggs, Valencia, Carrick, Anderson, Nani and Scholes have all found the mark this term.
Other English midfields boast more individual class from Frank Lampard to Steven Gerrard, Cesc F?egas to Michael Essien, and none of Ferguson's squad would make an all-star European XI (how could they with Essien, F?egas, Alonso and Xavi around?) but no club have the options of United, fostering an imperative to deliver in each man who makes Ferguson's starting XI.
