DISCLAIMER!
No intent on vulgar innuendo because any footballing observer can AND will tell you that both Ser A.Fergie and Senhor Mou will always end up focusing the core of their respective teams within the middle 2 central midfielders. |
| Man of the Match: Fergie Keano mini mani Mou... |
But firstly a couple of names up for credit naming...
Namely my next door neighbour Ralph (sp?) and a certain Saruman Melayu from my dept. Not that I never wanted to do this, but you guys rock for giving me that kick up the ass.
But firstly, let's talking about this...
Apparently, I don't remember Fergie acting like an asshole last time round against the FA due to the Ronaldo transfer saga (and to be fair, he's actually being far more of a viral asshole worth a whopping eighty million quids towards Florentino Perez himself rather than the FA itself). In fact, the only reason why people are putting up a logical equation amounting to 2+2=5 was down to this: blame the pundits, blame the missus.
Now I'm NOT trying to say Rooney was benched because of anything beyond tactical needs because fact is, the decision IS a tactical one! Don't believe me?
We talk about Danny "black aerodynamics" Welbeck then lah!
Firstly and foremost, it will be ludicrous to say Welbeck's stock is now skyrocketing just because of one single match. Granted Rooney was only brought off the bench much later on, but the match had been effectively lost due to Nani getting that red card tantamount to technical controversy (and suffice to say, that caused Fergie giving UEFA his very own 2 middle salute in spite of rumours unfounded pointing to the French really hating the English).
Secondly, what is Welbeck's strength? Rooney is a far better player, I'll have to speak the truth. Mr Eric Soh might be right when he said ah-ma years ago that Rooney has always been the best technical player in the England senior squad and it's not hard to see why.
Tactically for a classic No.9, he's an astute reader of the game. Something far more well aligned to a playmaker or a centre back.
Technically as a classic No.9, he can hold/control the ball extremely well. Couple with the fact that he's your standard humongous English centre forward (although a classic French centre forward is pretty much the same basic mold as well), you'll have someone who is tactically gifted and technically gifted.
As for Welbeck, what he has only is pace and athleticism. That's more than enough for Fergie to say "okay, blackie lad, you're in the starting 11, make sure you don't **** it".
In short, Welbeck's role as that deep lying centre forward was all about covering ground and tracking the ball back. Is Rooney athletic enough? Yes. Is he more athletic than Welbeck? Well, we'll have to ask an expert on racial genetics to be honestly fair (but at least I know a half-fit Usain Bolt can still run faster than a match fit Rooney).
Ser A.Fergie: I have a plan to stop Ronaldo...
"I've got a plan to stop him: it's called a machete. Plan B is a machine gun!"
And not so inexplicably enough, we need to factor in a Plan C. It has nothing to do with a certain C-word made famous by a certain John "scoring" Terry. But rather, Plan C was all about using Welbeck to pressure Real at the back while tracking back the ball should there be a danger of Mesut "Turkish delight" Ozil posing an actual danger up front. In short, the backbone of any team managed by Senhor Mou has been down to a rock hard spine anchoring the midfield/defence.
And this the the reason why Real's counterattacking game is so devastatingly swift.
Unlike Chelsea and the Nerazzurri prior to his real big ($$$) break, Los Blancos is all about utilising a far more expansive platform.
Chelsea was far more about a tireless midfield engine room while Inter Milan was basically far more steeped into ball possession due to Wesley "Total Footballing Paul Scholes" Sneijder making his counterattacking tactics possible.
As for Los Blancos, it's all about Sami "die WTF" Khedira. A dynamic midfielder coupled with a certain aerial presence, this is one hell of a German immigrant because having an absurd level of natural aerodynamics will mean that he can be extremely deadly as a box-to-box attacking support (and to be fair, I remember the Germans during WWII were extremely good at dishing out tactical assault. Either that's the case or I'm just merely bullshitting off the bat).
Yet at the same time, in order for such an expansive system to click into gear, Senhor Mou still needs two types of players. One is a player capable of creating chances from the deep and the other being your offensive link-up player. We all know that Turkish Delight in White is playing the link-up role as an offensive playmaker not so much different from a certain Captain Spock.
The former player mold?
We all know that amigo anyway and he doesn't race F1 for a living, i.e. Xabi "NOT Fernando" Alonso.
In short, Fergie's instruction was very clear. Welbeck's only job was to pressure Alonso as the first priority while tracking back to nail a hit or two on Ozil if necessary.
And what does this have to do with stopping CR7?
Because the catch is very simple. Ronaldo, in effectively has already matured quite a lot under Senhor Mou's tutelage (and to be fair, Senhor Mou has gotta be the best man manager in a world brimming with talented footballing managers).
From merely a CR7, what the opposition has to face now is a Cruise Rocketing 7 capable of rocketing himself straight into the final third just from anywhere possible across the pitch. Fergie just can't have that happening, that's why Welbeck has to pressure Alonso. To force Cruise Rocketing 7 to rocket himself back into his own half in order to help out the defensive work.
And should the worst case scenario happen where Ozil gets the ball, Welbeck could either choose tracking back the ball if possible or Fergie would still have Michael "NOT that Spanish" Carrick and Tom "son of Paul Scholes" Cleverley on standby anyway (more on that later on).
In short, just as that certain Blaugrana is a team built around Lionel Messi, Los Blancos as a team will always end up having Cristiano Ronaldo as the focal point for all things counter attacking.
Fergie's 2 middle salute on the pitch plus one other vital bloke...
If Senhor Mou's 2 middle salute is all about an expansive counterattacking, then Fergie's very own 2 middle salute will be down to controlling possession. In short, Carrick can't pass the ball post 30 yards out, but Cleverley can. Cleverley can't tackle the ball and keep possession as well as Carrick does and we all can easily do our own tactical maths from hereon.
Which now come to another major player of note: Ryan "super-injunction" Giggs. A joke most disrespectful aside, he's the reason why Utd can pressure Real and prevent it from playing it's most favoured counterattacking game. In short, by deploying the Earl of Wales upfront in the centre-left position, Fergie's intent was extremely clear: to create an expansive game of ball possession/retention.
Now we'll have to give it to the Earl of Wales himself. Back when he was a mere impetuous youth, he's indeed a fearless lad, the Knight Errant of Wales. In short, he can AND will be extremely aggressive once he gets the ball (as a certain Mark Venus can testify by repeating that famous outburst of his). That was when he's indeed the Wing Vanguard, that was when people started asking why he never ended up playing for England despite the fact that he's only eligible to play for Wales (and to be fair, even Mr Eric Soh committed the mistake of believing Giggs to be eligible in playing for Engrand in the first place).
Which now comes back to our 2 middle salute. Carrick distributing the ball in a shorter range while anchoring possession with Cleverley linking up play further upfront in the middle with a longer passing range. If we're to factor in the Earl of Wales controlling possession with Welbeck acting as the lone WMD (i.e. Weapon of Mass Disruption), then all we have left is Nani.
Nani kenna red card=OT's reaction: "NANI KORE!!!!"
The moment where technical issues will be a constant talking point (and even then, I can't be sure on whether a mere studs up challenge while looking at the ball should be a legit sending off until I realised that the people at UEFA are actually much more technically obsessed than the English in general).
Now let's not talk about this. Let's talk about Nani and why he's so garang in that match. Now Nani isn't really a shit player. His major problem has always been about chronic inconsistency and nothing else.
Ironically, by the equation calculated by Minghui-matics...
Probability of a Rooney transfer: 50%
Probability of a Nani transfer: 85%
Deficit in Rooney's disfavour: 50%-85%=-35%
Deficit in Nani's disfavour: 85%-50%=35%
Transfer mathematics aside, let's talk about Nani. What was Nani's role? To surge forward and pressure the Real backline, with or without the ball. Portuguese football, like Spanish football, is all about ball retention and mobility. However, the key difference between the two is that Portuguese players tend to be more athletic and pacy while Spanish players are more about movement and ball control.
In short, Nani's strength as a Portuguese player worked in Utd's favour and the lad sure did himself NO disfavour when he kept on running forward like a Duracell Bunny manufactured locally in Portugal.
And that's why Fergie was cursing "NANI KORE!!!!!!" nonstop despite him being an old Scottish bastard rather than an old Japanese bastard.
Nani's red card destroyed the match for Utd and Rooney's inclusion wouldn't have made a difference anyway if he's being subbed in earlier.
Pressure and athleticism building from the deep lying No.9 was the key and since Fergie didn't have another pacy player stashed onto the bench somewhere, then all I can say is that...
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| Yes, folks. This is CR7 saying "KANZEN SHOURI!!!!" |
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