carlyluvsunited
05-11-2007, 07:11 PM
Had they not been sighted side-by-side on the Manchester United bench, it would
have been hard to believe that Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz had
attended the same match. Terrible abuse from people two or three feet away, Sir
Alex raged, while Queiroz commended his hosts on the atmosphere in the
stadium. Arsenal equalised only by pumping long balls into the box, the manager
snapped. We should congratulate the players of both teams, it was a great day
for football, his coach said with a smile. The referee favoured Arsenal, Sir Alex
howled. It was fantastic to see this game, his contrary sounding-board concluded.
Arsenal’s injury-time goal must have been hard to take, particularly when on
previous occasions United goalkeepers such as Roy Carroll have been allowed to
operate with imaginary goallines a good yard behind the posts, but William
Gallas levelled the game fair and square and justice was done with a point
apiece. Arsenal had the best of the play, United the best of the chances.
Queiroz was right because the players of both teams deserved credit for barely
taking a backward step after half-time; Ferguson was wrong, because Howard
Webb, the referee, did Arsenal no favours and, if anything, the home team got a
raw deal. Ferguson thought he saw a foul on Louis Saha in the build-up to
Arsenal’s second goal, but more striking was the push on Alexander Hleb by Wes
Brown that aided United’s first. A penalty-area tug committed by Nemanja Vidic
on Hleb was also waved away. Despite this, the draw was the right result.
Ferguson’s reaction also confirms that despite the bravado emanating from Old
Trafford, he knows Arsenal present a serious threat to United’s supremacy this
season. While the past seven days have brought the league leaders two points
from a possible six – Arsène Wenger was hoping for four – the nature of the
results, never in front against Liverpool and United yet showing the character to
level late on, is indeed the form of potential champions. “This side has something
you do not see at first look,” Wenger, speaking of a resilience that is no longer
disputed, said. Well, almost.
What is wrong with this picture? Peter Schmeichel, Tim Flowers, Mark Bosnich,
David Seaman, Fabien Barthez, Jens Lehmann, Petr Cech, Edwin van der Sar,
Manuel Almunia. If Wenger is to go the rest of the season with his present
goalkeeper, he must buck a top-flight trend that winner’s medals go to
experienced internationals and men at the peak of their craft.
Barthez will be remembered for the odd calamity but also for his World Cup
victory; Lehmann is highly strung but has successfully deposed Oliver Kahn as
Germany’s No 1; Flowers was a solid citizen and unfortunate to have his career
run parallel to another pair of safe hands in Seaman; even Bosnich was briefly at
the top of the tree at the time of his move to United. As for the rest, Schmeichel,
Seaman, Van der Sar and Cech have enjoyed spells when unofficially tagged “the
best in the world”.
And then there is Almunia, or Manuel as he will for ever be known, were he to
prove as accident prone as his namesake from a chaotically-run Torquay hotel. In
by default after Lehmann’s unhappy start to the season and now riding the coat
-tails of this impressive young Arsenal team when tested by United after the first
equaliser, he was the only member of Wenger’s team who did not pass the
psychological examination, appearing skittish and flustered under pressure.
He was certainly culpable for the second goal, having already twice left his line in
a misguided attempt to see off a United attacking threat from wide. When he did
it a third time, Patrice Evra’s wit and Cristiano Ronaldo’s finishing made him pay.
His excitability seemed to coincide with a period of the game when one mistake
was likely to determine the outcome; his decision-making went to hell and that is
not a good sign.
Even the greatest goalkeepers are vulnerable to the pressure of the big occasion
and last season’s champion, Van der Sar, may have retained his place in this
campaign only because of an injury to Ben Foster, his deputy, but Almunia is
different. He does not have the same store of experience to draw on when times
get tough. He is not a full international and has little significant history at club
level.
His greatest concentration of appearances came with Osasuna’s B team between
the ages of 20 and 22 (he is now 30) and since then he is yet to reach the
milestone of 50 league appearances with any club, even Sabadell and Eibar, from
Spain’s second division. Picked up from humble Albacete Balompié in 2004, his
three years at Arsenal have yielded 20 league games. This is his longest run in
the team as Wenger makes a point to Lehmann, but he is hardly the man to be
trusted holding Arsenal’s title chances when his rivals at United, Liverpool and
Chelsea can call on a trio of goalkeepers in Van der Sar, José Manuel Reina and
Cech with 181 international appearances between them.
“I have three goalkeepers, including Lukasz Fabianski,” Wenger said, “but until
now, Almunia has done extremely well for ten games and I didn’t want to disturb
the side. I believe in sticking with one goalkeeper, but at the same time you
cannot tell him: ‘No matter how many mistakes you make, you’ll always be my
man.’ But you have to give him at least two games, so Lehmann does not come
back into consideration yet, even though Manuel will feel he made a mistake for
their second goal, because he left his area but did not get the ball.”
If Wenger’s policy is to allow two strikes - and that seems consistent as Lehmann
was dropped after mistakes against Fulham and Blackburn Rovers – then
Saturday was strike one for Almunia. Another poor game and the search for a
steadying influence behind the defence resumes and if Lehmann and Almunia
have been tried and failed, that leaves only Fabianski, the 22-year-old whose
sole first-team action has come via the Carling Cup.
The answer could lie in the January transfer window, but with ten Barclays
Premier League games between now and then, Wenger will be hoping this is the
last “ Que?” of Manuel’s season. It takes a top-end goalkeeper to win the
league: what a pity if such a perfect proposition was to founder on football’s
equivalent of the bleeding obvious.
How they rated
Arsenal 2 Fàbregas 48, Gallas 90
4-4-1-1 M Almunia 4 B Sagna 6 K Touré 7 W Gallas 8 G Clichy 5 E Eboué 6 F
Fàbregas Y 7 M Flamini 6 T Rosicky 8 A Hleb 7 E Adebayor 8 Substitutes: T
Walcott (for Eboué, 73min), Gilberto Silva (for Flamini, 80), Eduardo da Silva (for
Rosicky, 80) Not used: J Lehmann, L Diarra Next: Reading (a)
Manchester United 2 Gallas 45 (og), Ronaldo 82
4-3-3 E van der Sar 6 W Brown 7 R Ferdinand 7 N Vidic 7 P Evra Y 8 O Hargreaves
Y 5 Anderson 8 R Giggs 7 C Ronaldo 7 C Tévez 6 W Rooney 7 Substitutes: J
O’Shea 5 (for Brown, 70), M Carrick (for Anderson, 75), L Saha (for Tévez, 75) Not
used: Nani, T Kuszczak Next: Blackburn Rovers (h)
Referee H Webb
Attendance 60,161
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have been hard to believe that Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz had
attended the same match. Terrible abuse from people two or three feet away, Sir
Alex raged, while Queiroz commended his hosts on the atmosphere in the
stadium. Arsenal equalised only by pumping long balls into the box, the manager
snapped. We should congratulate the players of both teams, it was a great day
for football, his coach said with a smile. The referee favoured Arsenal, Sir Alex
howled. It was fantastic to see this game, his contrary sounding-board concluded.
Arsenal’s injury-time goal must have been hard to take, particularly when on
previous occasions United goalkeepers such as Roy Carroll have been allowed to
operate with imaginary goallines a good yard behind the posts, but William
Gallas levelled the game fair and square and justice was done with a point
apiece. Arsenal had the best of the play, United the best of the chances.
Queiroz was right because the players of both teams deserved credit for barely
taking a backward step after half-time; Ferguson was wrong, because Howard
Webb, the referee, did Arsenal no favours and, if anything, the home team got a
raw deal. Ferguson thought he saw a foul on Louis Saha in the build-up to
Arsenal’s second goal, but more striking was the push on Alexander Hleb by Wes
Brown that aided United’s first. A penalty-area tug committed by Nemanja Vidic
on Hleb was also waved away. Despite this, the draw was the right result.
Ferguson’s reaction also confirms that despite the bravado emanating from Old
Trafford, he knows Arsenal present a serious threat to United’s supremacy this
season. While the past seven days have brought the league leaders two points
from a possible six – Arsène Wenger was hoping for four – the nature of the
results, never in front against Liverpool and United yet showing the character to
level late on, is indeed the form of potential champions. “This side has something
you do not see at first look,” Wenger, speaking of a resilience that is no longer
disputed, said. Well, almost.
What is wrong with this picture? Peter Schmeichel, Tim Flowers, Mark Bosnich,
David Seaman, Fabien Barthez, Jens Lehmann, Petr Cech, Edwin van der Sar,
Manuel Almunia. If Wenger is to go the rest of the season with his present
goalkeeper, he must buck a top-flight trend that winner’s medals go to
experienced internationals and men at the peak of their craft.
Barthez will be remembered for the odd calamity but also for his World Cup
victory; Lehmann is highly strung but has successfully deposed Oliver Kahn as
Germany’s No 1; Flowers was a solid citizen and unfortunate to have his career
run parallel to another pair of safe hands in Seaman; even Bosnich was briefly at
the top of the tree at the time of his move to United. As for the rest, Schmeichel,
Seaman, Van der Sar and Cech have enjoyed spells when unofficially tagged “the
best in the world”.
And then there is Almunia, or Manuel as he will for ever be known, were he to
prove as accident prone as his namesake from a chaotically-run Torquay hotel. In
by default after Lehmann’s unhappy start to the season and now riding the coat
-tails of this impressive young Arsenal team when tested by United after the first
equaliser, he was the only member of Wenger’s team who did not pass the
psychological examination, appearing skittish and flustered under pressure.
He was certainly culpable for the second goal, having already twice left his line in
a misguided attempt to see off a United attacking threat from wide. When he did
it a third time, Patrice Evra’s wit and Cristiano Ronaldo’s finishing made him pay.
His excitability seemed to coincide with a period of the game when one mistake
was likely to determine the outcome; his decision-making went to hell and that is
not a good sign.
Even the greatest goalkeepers are vulnerable to the pressure of the big occasion
and last season’s champion, Van der Sar, may have retained his place in this
campaign only because of an injury to Ben Foster, his deputy, but Almunia is
different. He does not have the same store of experience to draw on when times
get tough. He is not a full international and has little significant history at club
level.
His greatest concentration of appearances came with Osasuna’s B team between
the ages of 20 and 22 (he is now 30) and since then he is yet to reach the
milestone of 50 league appearances with any club, even Sabadell and Eibar, from
Spain’s second division. Picked up from humble Albacete Balompié in 2004, his
three years at Arsenal have yielded 20 league games. This is his longest run in
the team as Wenger makes a point to Lehmann, but he is hardly the man to be
trusted holding Arsenal’s title chances when his rivals at United, Liverpool and
Chelsea can call on a trio of goalkeepers in Van der Sar, José Manuel Reina and
Cech with 181 international appearances between them.
“I have three goalkeepers, including Lukasz Fabianski,” Wenger said, “but until
now, Almunia has done extremely well for ten games and I didn’t want to disturb
the side. I believe in sticking with one goalkeeper, but at the same time you
cannot tell him: ‘No matter how many mistakes you make, you’ll always be my
man.’ But you have to give him at least two games, so Lehmann does not come
back into consideration yet, even though Manuel will feel he made a mistake for
their second goal, because he left his area but did not get the ball.”
If Wenger’s policy is to allow two strikes - and that seems consistent as Lehmann
was dropped after mistakes against Fulham and Blackburn Rovers – then
Saturday was strike one for Almunia. Another poor game and the search for a
steadying influence behind the defence resumes and if Lehmann and Almunia
have been tried and failed, that leaves only Fabianski, the 22-year-old whose
sole first-team action has come via the Carling Cup.
The answer could lie in the January transfer window, but with ten Barclays
Premier League games between now and then, Wenger will be hoping this is the
last “ Que?” of Manuel’s season. It takes a top-end goalkeeper to win the
league: what a pity if such a perfect proposition was to founder on football’s
equivalent of the bleeding obvious.
How they rated
Arsenal 2 Fàbregas 48, Gallas 90
4-4-1-1 M Almunia 4 B Sagna 6 K Touré 7 W Gallas 8 G Clichy 5 E Eboué 6 F
Fàbregas Y 7 M Flamini 6 T Rosicky 8 A Hleb 7 E Adebayor 8 Substitutes: T
Walcott (for Eboué, 73min), Gilberto Silva (for Flamini, 80), Eduardo da Silva (for
Rosicky, 80) Not used: J Lehmann, L Diarra Next: Reading (a)
Manchester United 2 Gallas 45 (og), Ronaldo 82
4-3-3 E van der Sar 6 W Brown 7 R Ferdinand 7 N Vidic 7 P Evra Y 8 O Hargreaves
Y 5 Anderson 8 R Giggs 7 C Ronaldo 7 C Tévez 6 W Rooney 7 Substitutes: J
O’Shea 5 (for Brown, 70), M Carrick (for Anderson, 75), L Saha (for Tévez, 75) Not
used: Nani, T Kuszczak Next: Blackburn Rovers (h)
Referee H Webb
Attendance 60,161
Click here to join manutdtalk.com and read all breaking news on all things
United !!!
http://manutdtalk.com/forums/register.php