Prophets of doom silenced

FROM champs to chumps and back again. Alex Ferguson has spoken often of the intensive spotlight his team must continually perform under but rarely can such polarised opinions have been produced in such a short space of time.

At Maine Road, on Saturday November 9, Ferguson took the unprecedented step of publicly lambasting his Manchester United team in the wake of their miserable derby-day defeat.

After accusing the players of letting down the coaches, the fans and themselves, Ferguson, never a man to take defeat lightly, finished with the chilling warning: “We will get a reaction from this all right.” Britain’s most successful manager has achieved his aim again.

Tuesday night’s Worthington Cup triumph over Chelsea was United’s eighth successive win, the last five of which have been achieved without the loss of a single goal.

Given the results have been attained without Rio Ferdinand, Roy Keane and Nicky Butt and largely in the absence of David Beckham, it is not an inconsiderable feat. It’s certainly been enough to silence the prophets of doom whose voices were booming across Old Trafford.

You see, Ferguson is not in unfamiliar territory. Twelve months ago, his team emerged from a wretched run to rise phoenix-like to the summit of the Premiership, only to fall away again at the season’s end and finish unusually empty-handed.

The trick now is to ensure mistakes are not repeated, the resurgence is maintained and the lack of hunger cited by the manager as a major factor behind last term’s comparative failure does not become an issue again.

With such riches at his disposal, the task should be an easy one, yet from this distant eye there seem some difficult decisions to be made. What for instance is Ferguson’s view on the midfield situation?

After waiting almost 18 months for a sign that Juan Veron is likely to repay his vast transfer fee, it appears the answer lies in a central midfield partnership with Phil Neville.

Alongside Keane and Beckham, Veron is too often a peripheral figure, overshadowed completely by talents proven on the domestic stage. With Neville, or indeed Quinton Fortune alongside, the Argentine positively blossoms, dictating the tempo of United’s attacking play and even contributing to the much-improved defence.

To play Neville and not Keane when the Irishman is fit is unthinkable, yet does Veron’s form become a factor.

Similarly, no-one would suggest that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a more effective or commanding presence on the right than Beckham. It’s just that this season at least, results have been better when the Norwegian has filled the role.

Even more delicate is the defensive situation. On actual form over the past six months, Rio Ferdinand would be rated the fourth most effective defender on Manchester United’s staff.

Blighted by injury, Ferdinand has never had the remotest chance of finding the consistency which made him a star performer for England in the World Cup last summer.

In contrast, John O’Shea has proved to be a young player of real talent, Wes Brown has started to fulfil the promise he showed as a teenager and Mikael Silvestre has moved seamlessly into central defence, improving markedly on already impressive performances at left-back.

Another clean sheet against Blackburn on Sunday and United will have gone six games without conceding a goal for the first time since early in Ferguson’s first title-winning campaign.

Class act though he undoubtedly is, how can Ferdinand’s return warrant breaking up the rearguard which has established such an exemplary record?

The United manager doesn’t have to justify his selections to anyone. His personal honours board is too long for any criticism to hold much water and he has long since stopped caring what his detractors say anyway.

However, he is now faced with the age-old problem of wondering if a winning team should be broken up.

But if Ferguson gets it right again, as he has done so many times in the past, Arsene Wenger may find the wind of change he predicted was sweeping through the Premiership has changed course and blown straight back in his face.

United responded to Arsenal’s last championship-winning season by bouncing straight back to win the treble.

Now the word quadruple has entered the English footballing lexicon.