Relentless United swap style for substance
It will be a while before ‘1-0 to the United’ is sung as lustily at Old Trafford as it was at Highbury but a hard-earned — if scrappy — victory here was their seventh win by that slender margin in the Premier League this season.
It is a pattern that suggests the freedom of last year has disappeared but 1-0 victories are always preferable to the goalless draws that Liverpool seem to specialise in.
Alex Ferguson has always been able to rely on the character of his players to dig them out of holes — we hardly need Clive Tyldsley to remind us of the most famous example, in Barcelona almost 10 years ago — but even the Scot is surprised to see it happening on a weekly basis.
What is clear is that without the solidity of United’s defence, which was again without Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra but has now not conceded in 10 league games since the 2-1 defeat at Arsenal in November, the current run would not be a pipe dream.
But as Nemanja Vidic continues to make an art out of bullying strikers, United can continue to wash over their problems at the other end, where they are still failing to convince.
With Wayne Rooney out for several weeks and Cristiano Ronaldo falling some way short of the levels he reached last season, Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov do not look a comfortable partnership.
Yet after 89 minutes of frustration, Tevez found the space to cross for Berbatov to head in and another three points took United top of the table, at least until tonight.
Gary Neville may not be the player he once was but he still knows what he is talking about when he sums up how United have erased the seven-point advantage Liverpool were enjoying when Ferguson’s men returned from the Club World Cup final in Japan before Christmas.
He said: “It is a really impressive quality we are showing at the moment.
“We are keeping our concentration at one end and with the players we have, there will always be a moment in the match where they pose a problem, particularly towards the end when a defender might lose their marker or one of our players might produce a little bit of magic.
“It happened with Carlos Tevez producing a bit of skill and Berbatov was there in the middle to knock it into the net. In the last couple of months we have had to keep clean sheets. Knowing as a team one goal will win us the match is a great position to be in. We always feel we can score a goal and create chances.”
It is hard to see that blue-print changing soon. At Bolton, Ronaldo did not look content on the left and apart from a couple of free-kicks that were dealt with by Jussi Jaaskelainen, his impact was limited until he finally found some space in the second period.
Ferguson’s midfield looked like it was designed to withstand and so it proved. Darren Fletcher’s limitations were exposed wide on the right and although Michael Carrick exuded his usual calm authority, Anderson, just like United, once again failed to hit the heights of last season.
Ahead of them, Tevez busied himself but, aside from his late assist, was ineffective. Berbatov, meanwhile, produced a performance that was either enigmatic or lazy, depending on your point of view.
Ferguson rarely sticks to the same front six players and as a result they have not managed to build up the kind of momentum they have produced in recent years. But it is the five players behind that have given them the basis for this season’s push.
Ferguson has revealed that clean sheets have been a dominant topic in the United changing room and a knowledge that they are unlikely to concede means that they know that sooner or, more likely, later, a goal will come from somewhere.
The United manager has been expressing concerns about the team’s lack of goals for weeks but Neville agrees that when the time comes, the Old Trafford side will take their chances.
“Ten clean sheets on the run is a massive achievement but defence has always been the bedrock,” the United captain added. “Last season and the one before, our defence has been good. To win things you can’t score five goals every week.
“We are having to score one at the moment to win a match. There will come a time when we have to score more than one and hopefully we will be able to do it.
“Momentum is important. We’re happy with the position we are in. But the most important months and matches are still to come.”
REFEREE: Andre Marriner (West Midlands) 7: Handled a feisty encounter calmly, a point backed up by the fact that he only showed two yellow cards.
MATCH RATING: *** This is now typical United. Not much of a performance but a winning goal when it mattered.
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