Win eases pressure on Ferguson

Jose Mourinho laughed at the suggestion that Alex Ferguson is under any pressure, but it needed a defeat of Benfica to let some steam escape from the Old Trafford cooking pot.

Whatever Mourinho’s views, Manchester United’s defeat by Blackburn had left Ferguson, his assistant Carlos Queiroz and his players in the position where questions were being asked about their ability and their future.

The Glazer takeover has made it a different ball-game to the one Ferguson has grown used to in his long reign, and he needed this victory if only to show that even someone as hard-nosed and experienced as he can respond to the intense scrutiny.

Certainly, the roar at the final whistle, six minutes after Ruud van Nistelrooy’s winner, was as much in relief as in triumph.

Queiroz’s reaction, however, must have been entirely one of relief too after his effort at helping management-supporter relations by saying in a Portuguese newspaper “we tried out the system the fans were demanding and still lost. That’s why football is a game in which imagination and, many times, stupidity has no limits.”

No limits indeed, Carlos, and perhaps the last thing you want when the fans are starting to get on your back is a match to evoke memories of glory days of yesteryear.

Ferguson joined in with the reminiscences of that 4-1 win over Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final in his programme notes, but they were written before the defeat by Blackburn, otherwise the United manager may have been more reluctant to hark back to that Wembley night.

This Benfica vintage are hardly comparable anyway to that great team of the 60s – despite being Portuguese champions they have started the season badly and certainly have no star names to rank with Eusebio.

Ferguson, or Queiroz if rumours are correct and it is he who often picks the team these days, stuck to their trusty guns – indeed it would have been foolish not to, particularly against a continental side – and went for a 4-2-3-1 system, designed perhaps to keep Paul Scholes out of his own penalty area after Saturday’s lunder.

It was by no means a negative approach, in fact it was as open and attacking as any football purist would want.

Scholes and Van Nistelrooy both threatened often in the first half, the Dutch striker coming agonisingly close when he stroked a half-volley against the crossbar and then slipped at the critical moment after being set free by Cristiano Ronaldo’s wonderfully-timed pass.

Ryan Giggs’ opening goal, a direct free-kick which took a heavy deflection off the wall, also owed a debt to Ronaldo’s direct running for forcing two Benfica defenders to block him illegally in a dangerous area.

But there were problems with United too, though nothing to do with the lack of 4-4-2 and everything to do with a lack of footballing IQ.

Simply, United’s troubles were nearly always self-inflicted. John O’Shea took his eye off the ball at a critical moment and it rolled underneath his boot, allowing Fabrizio Miccoli to drive in a stinging shot that Edwin van der Sar kept out superbly.

Dismal marking at the following corner saw Anderson Luisao power in a header, again leaving the Dutch keeper to come to the rescue.

Darren Fletcher’s surrendering of possession deep in his own territory was awful, and luckily for him Sabrosa Simao drilled wide.

United should be glad that Ronald Koeman had instructed his side not merely to turn up and defend in numbers in the hope of securing a draw, but to play their part in what swiftly developed into good entertainment – and a timely reminder that football is often worth the entrance price.

There were 15 shots in the first half alone, split eight-seven in United’s favour with Benfica often committing six players into United’s penalty area.

That sense of adventure by the visitors was rewarded when Simao showed why Rafael Benitez had been so keen to sign him for Liverpool in the summer with a brilliant dipping free-kick, though Alan Smith’s needless felling of Miccoli so close to his own goal once again hinted of self-destruction.

Still the match ebbed and flowed – and Ferguson’s emotions too, no doubt. Ronaldo’s drive was parried onto the post by Jose Moreira, Bastos Leo saw his fiercely-struck effort well-saved by the fantastic Van der Sar while Phil Bardsley proved himself a hugely-useful asset at right-back.

Finally, with six minutes remaining, Van Nistelrooy struck from close-range to finish off a Rio Ferdinand flick-on and Ferguson could sit back and muse that this mini-crisis had come to an end.

How long to the next one though? That is the question that dogs every manager, and one that none can answer.