Manchester United are negative, Birmingham should be more positive and Phil Brown fans are braced for the worst
1. Manchester United are not an attacking team
Sir Alex Ferguson is happy to tell anyone who will listen that Manchester United’s attacking traditions cannot be compromised, but this tiresome prattle – swallowed up unthinkingly by the masses – is incontrovertibly contradicted by the evidence of this decade. Ferguson was brainwashed first by a numbing but ultimately unfortunate defeat to Real Madrid in 1999-2000 and then by Carlos Queiroz, and changed his approach for the really big games, in which United’s approach is invariably at best cagey and at worst catenaccio. Previously he wanted to score one more than the opposition; now he wants to concede one fewer. Previously the football Manchester United played was sexy; now it is Sextonian. A nadir was reached with their feeble surrender at Anfield yesterday, when United were well beaten by a desperately mediocre Liverpool side.
Such a conservative approach is not entirely without pragmatic merit, and has produced some very good results at Anfield, Camp Nou and Old Trafford in recent years, but those came when Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were the best centre-back pairing in the Premier League. Yesterday United flounced around like a team waiting to concede, with the inexplicable exclusion of Anderson contributing to a catatonic attacking display until Fernando Torres’s brilliantly taken opening goal.
It is not entirely inconceivable that this was the consequence of a collective loss of nerve among the players, but it has happened with such frequency over the last few years that all logic suggests they were adhering to instructions. On Friday, Ferguson said that Liverpool was “the game”, but his disinclination to put the foot on Liverpool’s throat showed a disconcerting lack of awareness of how much the contest really means. In context – with Liverpool in disarray and with a chance, maybe, to hound Rafael Benítez out of a job – this was the most spineless, lily-livered and unforgiveable performance of Ferguson’s 23 years at the club. It betrayed the club’s attacking tradition; even worse, it betrayed the tradition of never, ever giving Liverpool an even break.
2. Chelsea are not dependent on attacking full-backs
The oversimplified reading of a diamond formation* suggests that any success is significantly dependent on the excellence of attacking full-backs. Yet Chelsea were without Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa when they obliterated Blackburn at the weekend. Juliano Belletti played within himself at left-back, while Branislav Ivanovic was largely useless going forward. It did not affect Chelsea at all.
With players of such ability and will there are so many ways to skin the cat: the unstoppable power of Didier Drogba, the craft of Michael Ballack, the subtlety of Frank Lampard, the force of Michael Essien, the pace of Nicolas Anelka, the mischief of Joe Cole – and the long-range shooting of all of them, with the Blackburn keeper Paul Robinson apparently trapped in a coconut shy. Like Don Revie’s Leeds, with whom this Chelsea side share so much – from frightening physical and mental toughness to inexplicably frequent second-place finishes – their collective strength has the capacity to transcend everything else, be it context, opposition, or even tactics.
*How should we list a diamond formation? 4-4-2 doesn’t tell the story; 4-1-2-1-2 looks pretentious. 4-D-2? 4–2?
3. The net is closing around Phil Brown
For those who have warmed to Phil Brown’s unique fusion of David Brent, Walter Mitty and perma tan, this was a sad weekend. Brown was booed for taking off Stephen Hunt during Hull’s 0-0 draw with Portsmouth; he was lampooned by Steve Stone and Steve Watson on Goals on Sunday, a response to his own appearance on the show; he had a fake Twitter page set up; and a quick look at Google tells us that there are 654,000 results for the search “Phil Brown David Brent”.
All this would not matter, of course, if Hull even resembled a football team. In a sense Brown is right when he says that he is a victim of his own success in getting Hull promoted, but everything points to a situation that is spiralling irredeemably out of control. The net is closing around him. Brown may not be of this league much longer. We should savour him while we can, because it’s fair to say we will never see his like again.
4. James Milner is becoming a top-class player
Most players move imperceptibly through the career gears – average to good to very good to great – but occasionally a player’s ascent is tangible. James Milner is in such a phase. He has clearly gone up a notch this season, and his range of skills is greater than any other winger in England. He is a pure footballer, an excellent crosser from open play or dead-ball situations, a subtle dribbler, an indefatigable worker, a humble team man, and versatile enough to play on both flanks or even in the centre.
The fact that he is not genuinely fast will probably stop him getting a place in England’s first XI at the World Cup – the right wing is the only obvious place where Fabio Capello can get blistering pace in his attacking sextet, and he is not going to displace Steven Gerrard on the left – but his versatility and quality should earn him a squad place. And at 23, he has scope for even more improvement.
5. Birmingham should play 4-4-2 more often
So many factors determine a football match that an obsession with tactics to the exclusion of everything else can occasionally seem like tedious intellectualising, but those who watched Birmingham’s emphatic defeat of a good Sunderland side ascribed a clear link between that performance, in which they scored two for the first time this season, and the fact that they finally played two up front.
While many managers seem to rebel against their playing careers – fantasy footballers like George Graham, Glenn Hoddle and Kenny Dalglish became arch-pragmatists – Alex McLeish is generally true to the values of his playing days: start with a clean sheet and let the rest take care of itself. Birmingham didn’t keep a clean sheet but they did win on Saturday; and given that the brilliant Christian Benítez, who has to stay in the team, probably does not have enough Premier League experience to play up front on his own, it’s an approach McLeish will surely revisit.
Premier LeagueManchester UnitedLiverpoolChelseaBirmingham CityHull CityEnglandRob Smythguardian.co.uk
