Quote of the Day

“It was easy, though, to see why United are being prominently linked with Jack Rodwell, who played with a maturity beyond his 18 years. The teenager is two-footed, tall, plays with his head up and always wants the ball. He looks like a United player in the making.”

Daniel Taylor, Guardian.

Happy Birthday, Paul Scholes!

Paul Scholes celebrates his 35th birthday today as a United legend. Not many people outside the United Academy could see that coming 19 years ago.

“At 16, we could play Scholsey for only 20 minutes a game. He was a little one. Had asthma. No strength. No power. No athleticism. No endurance. (…) If Scholsey had been at a lesser club, they would have got rid of him and he would probably not be in the game now”, said former Academy Director Les Kershaw in an interview with Henry Winter a few years ago.

Since then Scholes has played more than 600 games for United and 66 times for England. But even more remarkable than those figures is the respect he’s earned from his fellow professionals:

Thierry Henry: “Without any doubt the best player in the Premiership has to be Scholes.”

Rio Ferdinand: “Everyone at the club considers him the best.”

Zinedine Zidane: “Scholes is undoubtedly the greatest midfielder of his generation.”

(Thanks to Scott at RoM for bringing the Kershaw interview to my attention.)

Fashion Statement for Spring of 2010

Duncan White in the Telegraph reckons Rooney is the player of the season, but also that he will need protective gear during the run-up to the World Cup:

“At a third of the way through the season it is too early to prophesies who will become the player of the season but you can certainly establish who is in the running. Remember, the PFA send out the ballots for their award early in the New Year so there isn’t actually that much more time to make your case for that award.

As it stands, I think there are four superb performers in the slipstream behind one outstanding candidate. John Terry and Drogba of Chelsea and Cesc Fàbregas and Robin Van Persie at Arsenal are definitely in the mix but a superb Rooney has carried Manchester United this season.

He should be forced to play the last three months of the season in moon boots if that’s what it takes to keep his metatarsals intact.”

Conspiracy to make Ravel Morrison a World Cup star

I’m beginning to think there is more to Telegraph’s recent articles about our 16-year-old academy player Ravel Morrison than meets the eye. In fact, I think they might be part of a long-term scheme to make him a star for United and England.

Morrison is a tremendous talent. Telegraph’s football correspondent Henry Winter rates his potential as better than Jack Wilshere of Arsenal and up with Jack Rodwell of Everton. Two players who are generally acknowledged as perhaps the two hottest teenage prospects in England.

But Ravel also has an attitude problem. He is rumoured to be difficult to handle and not to be overly commited to training. The official site manutd.com today published an article about 17-year-old midfielder Robbie Brady. Brady is asked who is the worst trainer at United and his answer is: “I’ll say Ravel Morrison. When he’s on his game he’s quality. But I reckon it’s just when he fancies it!”

So Alex Ferguson has on his hands a superbly talented youngster who is not motivated enough to put in the hard work necessary to reach the pinnacles of the sport. I suppose that all coaches at United are aware of this and that everything possible is done to strengthen Morrison’s motivation. But someone might have felt that it could be further lifted by the support from a very respected football writer. This would have the added advantage that it would raise the awareness among people around Morrison that he is “a potential gem for 2014″. I therefore believe that someone (SAF?) has had a word with Henry Winter.

This fits with my assumption that Henry Winter can hardly have found out about Morrison’s quality by stalking football grounds in the Manchester suburbs. I would be surprised if Winter himself has seen a single one of our youth team games during the last twelve months. In his position I can’t see how he could find the time to.

All in all, a nice plot if it works. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Our rock is crumbling before our very eyes

For the last three seasons United’s success (including three consecutive PL-titles) has to a large extent been built on the solid foundation of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. This season the partnership has looked rather more shaky.  But I have felt that even though this was perhaps not as insignificant as a “blip” it would still sort itself out before long. Until now. After the defeat at Anfield I now believe that central defence is turning into a long term problem.

Throughout his career Rio Ferdinand has been accused of occasionally going to sleep and lacking concentration, but this problem largely disappeared a few years ago. Lately his focus might have suffered more from all kinds of off-field activities that seem to occupy his mind. This stretches from becoming a father to editing his own magazine, involving himself in a restaurant venture and producing movies. Still the most serious problem is probably his fitness. He needs continous physiotherapy for his recurring back spasms and hasn’t been able to fully join in training for most of the season. My impression is that the doctors don’t know the root of the problem and are just treating the symptoms.

In previous seasons Nemanja Vidic has occasionally looked vulnerable to pace. This was most obvious when he was humiliated by Torres at Old Trafford last season. Three successive red cards against Liverpool/Torres is not a coincidence.  This season he seems to be in trouble more often. One example is that he was lucky not to be sent off against Wolfsburg, when he found it difficult to handle Dzeko and Grafite. Meanwhile rumours continue to surface that Vidic (or his wife) is tired of England and would prefer to live in Spain or Italy. It’s also very likely that Barcelona will be in the market for a central defender next summer.

Perhaps I’m wrong in describing our defensive rock as a partnership, when in fact Edwin van der Sar has been very much a part of it. The fact that Van der Sar has been injured for a large part of this season, and that Ben Foster has looked out of his depth has made it more difficult for Vidic and Ferdinand. It would be so much easier to ease in a new keeper if the Ferdinand-Vidic partnership was in perfect shape.

I fear that we might in fact be moving towards a scenario where Van der Sar retires, Vidic leaves for Spain and Ferdinand struggles even more with injuries. This would leave Ferguson with a major rebuilding challenge in a key area. Thank heavens for Jonny Evans.

The Paganini of the restrained celebration

Most people who score an 86th minute winner in a CL-game would celebrate quite wildly. But not Antonio Valencia. Instead he gave the impression of inscrutable melancholy with a hint of embarrassment. Very similar to his post-scoring behaviour against Bolton a few days earlier.

However, when he scored in the recent World Cup qualifier between Ecuador and Uruguay he couldn’t quite live up to his own high standards of restraint. He jumped over the advertising hoardings and ran into the crowd. Probably enough to earn him a booking in the PL.

So why these totally different reactions? Amateur psychology suggests that Valencia feels more at ease in the Ecuador national squad than with his new team-mates at Old Trafford. From a footballing point of view he’s very much an integral part of the team. To my mind he’s already an established member of our first XI. But maybe in a social sense he doesn’t yet feel part of the group.

The game against CSKA again confirmed how much more efficient Valencia is compared to Nani. I don’t particularly like the fact that Berbatov spent a large part of the game showing everyone how frustrated he was with Nani. But I can understand him. Another positive was the performance of Fabio who might just prove those experts right who suggested that he might be even better than his brother. A special mention also to John O’Shea who had a solid game in central midfield. Most of the time he doesn’t get the credit he deserves, but it’s brilliant to have this kind of player in the squad.

“A youngster who could grace England’s midfield for years to come”

In an article in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, their Football Correspondent  Henry Winter claims that we have “a gem” and future England star in our academy.

“There is also a wonderfully skilful but wayward youngster at United’s academy who could grace England’s midfield for years to come – but only if he responds to Ferguson’s intelligent guidance. If Ferguson can rein him in, United and England have a gem.”

This is extraordinary praise from one of Britain’s top football writers. Most likely he’s refering to Ravel Morrison who is a 16-year-old midfielder/winger playing for United’s Under-18’s. The official site describes him as “a skilful, creative midfielder capable of scoring and making goals”. He was recently picked in the England squad for the UEFA Under-17 qualification starting in late October.

It’s unlikely that Henry Winter watches a lot of our Under-18 games or relies only on youtube compilations. More likely his very positive assessment is based on interviews with insiders at Carrington or the FA.

Telegraph describes Morrison as “wayward”  and on different internet forums he’s rumoured to have an attitude problem and be hard to handle. More worrying is that he was caught up in a guns and drugs bust five months ago. He was in a car stopped by the police and officers are believed to have found drugs and guns in the car (at least according to the Mirror). This explains why Ferguson might need to reign him in.

I’ve previously read some positive reports on Morrison, mainly at United Youth who offers by far the best coverage of our youth teams, but following the Telegraph article it will be even more interesting to follow his progress.

The Spectator Who Would Be Engine Room

Talented but languid, moody, lazy and disinterested. This is a brief summary of the doubters’ view of Dimitar Berbatov. A view strengthened by the fact that in between his touches of genius he sometimes looks bewildered, as if he cannot really understand why everyone else is running around so much.

Opinions about Berbatov among United fans have been divided from the outset. I’m firmly in the supporting camp. Mostly because his sublime skill and style brings something to the team that few other players have. Any game of football is invariably more enjoyable to watch if Berbatov takes part.

But during the last week I also believe that we’ve seen the beginning of another very interesting Berbatov trend. Against Wolfsburg last Wednesday we were very ineffective in the early stages and didn’t really start to play until Berbatov came on after 19 minutes. This was of course partly because his passing, movement and positioning influenced his team-mates. But there was also something about his attitude. He actually energized the team in a way that I haven’t seen him do before.

In our next game, against Sunderland, he scored a spectacular goal but this didn’t cause him to celebrate wildly or shyly acknowledge the crowd. Instead he picked the ball out of the net and ran straight back to the centre circle to get the game restarted. This is the kind of attitude previously more associated with players like Wayne Rooney or Gary Neville (who are very rarely accused of being lazy or disinterested).

Maybe from now on we will start looking at Berbatov as one of the driving forces in the engine room. If this trend continues I predict that most of his critics will be very silent by the end of this season.

The Nani conundrum

Two of a kind?

If you read my previous post you will know that I didn’t dare include Nani in the group of players of whom I expected a positive development this season. The reason is that Nani is by some distance the most frustrating player in our squad. There is no doubt that he has an awful lot of talent, but it’s equally obvious that more often than not he’s unable to use it properly. I’m often impressed by his all-important ability to create space for himself, but then he tends to waste the opportunity by mis-hitting a pass or a cross.

Defensively he’s a bit of a disaster. I don’t know whether this is because he lacks tactical awareness or just not fancies tracking back. The coaches need to work on this, as I’m sure they do. Particularly as he’s supposed to form a partnership with Patrice Evra, one of the most attack-minded full-backs in the world.

At the end of last season I had more or less written him off. I didn’t think he would be able to establish himself as an important part of the first-XI, even after the departure of Ronaldo. But then again in the last few weeks, particularly in the Community Shield, he’s shown the kind of form that raised my hopes of a bright future. Another false dawn? I have no idea. Frustrating, isn’t it?

Prelude to a new golden era

No, I’m not thinking of our first three games as a prelude to a golden season. In fact, I don’t think this season will be particularly successful when it comes to winning trophies. Even so I look forward to the next nine months with great expectations. Which might seem a bit peculiar considering that we’ve sold the best player in the world and lost another world class attacker to City, and failed to sign replacements of similar stature.

The reason for my optimism is that I believe that we will see a rapid positive development of several players, which might in a year or two create an even better team than we’ve had for the last couple of seasons.

Firstly, we have a group of hugely talented youngsters of a quality that might even be about to rival the peerless fledglings from the early 90’s; Giggs, Butt, Beckham, Gary, Phil and Scholes (below).

Rafael and Fabio da Silva have taken to the PL like ducks to water. I’ve been amazed by how unfazed they’ve seemed when playing for the first team at only 17. This indicates mental strength to add to their obvious football skills. Only the excellence of Patrice Evra can stop them from both being first-choices before long.

Sir Alex has predicted that Danny Welbeck will travel to South Africa with England next summer. I find this rather unrealistic, but the last time I remember thinking that Ferguson praised a youngster a bit too much he was talking about – Paul Scholes.

Federico Macheda needed only 20 minutes or so against Villa to make it onto most people’s short-lists for both Goal of the Season and Player of the Season. Nick at the excellent manunitedyouth describes Macheda as a mix of Van Nistelrooy and Berbatov. Sounds good enough to me.

I admit that i didn’t think that Darron Gibson would ever make it to the first team, but he keeps on improving and will do so again this season.

Apart from the youngsters I believe we’ll see continued development from some of the more established players. The obvious example from last season is Darren Fletcher. Rarely has a player’s reputation been so enhanced by not playing a game as when Fletcher was suspended for the CL-final against Barcelona. A year ago very few would have predicted that Fergie’s main selection problem in midfield would now be who to pick alongside Fletcher. I think we will see him move on to yet another level this season.

I hesitate to include Nani in this group. Perhaps I’d better not. I’ll get back to him in a seperate post.

Finally, to achieve greatness we need a catalyst, much like Eric Cantona was in the 90’s. Regular visitors to Between the Lines will be well aware that in my opinion “le prochain Cantona” is already present at the club. It’s just a question of Dimitar Berbatov fulfilling this potential, as I think he will begin to do this season. I re-use my favourite quote: “All strikers must be soloists when appropriate – but rare ones, like Berbatov and Cantona, can also conduct the orchestra.”

Those were the days