United: The great pretenders?

THE corpse of Manchester United’s European dream is still warm but already the post-mortem is well under way. And there could be further casualties resulting from Wednesday’s night’s crushing loss to Barcelona in Rome, as fresh doubts are raised about the Old Trafford futures of Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.

Meanwhile, the most pressing question posed by their comprehensive defeat is why United so singularly failed to do themselves justice in the Stadio Olimpico.

Of course, the main reason, and the most glaringly obvious one, is that, after a misleading opening ten minutes, Barcelona barely gave the defending champions a chance to make their standard pitch.

Afterwards, asked to sum up the Catalans’ mastery of possession, a beaming Pep Guardiola could say, with the luxurious self-deprecation of the winner: “If we try to play without the ball, we are disastrous, horrible.”

After his own side’s experience of being rendered helpless bystanders, Alex Ferguson wouldn’t be inclined to see the funny side of that one. But while there is clearly something in the notion that this was an exceptionally bad night at the office for the English champions, the loss of their European crown defeat does highlight a worrying pattern which was already evident on the domestic front and which may carry serious implications for the club next season.

In winning the Premiership, United were ruthlessly efficient against the lesser lights. But when it came to the big guns they were far less convincing, taking a measly five points from six games against the big four, a statistic which compares most unfavourably with Liverpool’s haul of 14.

In other words, there are serious questions about just how good this United team is when it comes up against the better sides – and, as was made sublimely clear in the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday night, they don’t come much better than Barcelona when the carnival mood is on them.

Still, Manchester United is a club renowned for its resilience and, even in the depressed aftermath of Rome, Rio Ferdinand was insistent that they will exhibit that comeback spirit next season.

“If you don’t play well in Champions League finals as a collective unit and as individuals then you don’t deserve to win,” he conceded. “It’s a bit too early to say why we didn’t play well. The wound is too raw. We need to sit back and look at the video. But we gave away two soft goals at important points in the game and maybe if we’d put away one of our chances earlier the game could have been different.

“But we don’t give up because we’ve lost one game. We have great character in the squad. We haven’t come this far and won so many things in the last few years with a lack of character. We know we’ve got that in abundance. But this is still a huge disappointment.

“We knew coming into the game that if we won it would be an unbelievable end to the season. But we also knew that if we lost, no matter how good the season has been, it would finish on a sour note. But we’re grown men and we’ll come back stronger.”

Ryan Giggs sounded the same defiant note.

“It is a disappointing end to a fantastic season but we’ll come back stronger,” he promised. “We’re determined to get to another final. That’s what great teams and great players do – they look forward to the next challenge. Everyone was down after the game, no-one wants to experience the disappointment of losing a final.

“We just didn’t turn up on the night – Barcelona were the better team and they deserved it. But we’ve won three leagues on the trot – that’s not to be forgotten – and we look to do four next season. And we’ll look to get to a third consecutive Champions’ League final which no-one’s ever done. They’re the challenges that we’ve got next year.”

For John O’Shea, who had a decent outing against Thierry Henry in Rome, the more immediate challenge is to lift himself for Ireland’s big World Cup qualifier in Bulgaria next weekend.

“You could say it has been a good season, but it’s sad for it to end like this,” he said. “Maybe in a few weeks time when we’re back in pre-season, the motivation will be there to come back to a final again because this team is young enough to come back for more finals. We’ll be bigger and more experienced.

“I have a few days off now before the Bulgaria game. Thankfully I don’t have to join up for the friendly (against Nigeria, tonight) but, no, I’m looking forward to it because playing in big games like the Champions League final drives you on. Playing in a World Cup is another thing I have on my list so hopefully we’ll get there.”

And does he think Ireland are poised to qualify for South Africa?

“Yeah, we have to believe so. It’s a huge game, away to Bulgaria. I’ll be looking not to lose at least but we’re hoping for three points. We were unlucky not to get three points at home. A similar performance and more concentration at the back and I think we can do it.”