The 2010-11 season will go down in history as the season when Manchester United finally knocked ‘Liverpool off the perch’ to become the most successful club in English football with 19 league titles. Given that Manchester United contested their 3rd Champions League final in four seasons (after managing to do the same just twice in 40 years prior to that) coupled to their finishing the league, a whopping nine points clear of runners-up Chelsea, one would be naturally inclined to believe, it has been a season to savour for the Red Devils.
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Despite these accomplishments, United have been under severe scrutiny throughout the season with their credentials being questioned each time they failed to deliver a superlative performance. If the likes of Sir Alex and senior pros like Giggs have gone on to rubbish such claims, pundits, critics and attention-seeking United-haters rarely missed an opportunity to slander a United performance with their moment of glory presenting itself when the English champions were outplayed in the Champions League Final at Wembley. For once, let us give the fanaticism a rest and objectively look at these claims as we seek to find out exactly how bad Manchester United were last season.
The bedrock of such vilifications
If the highlight of their 19th league title was a record-equaling home form (18 wins and a draw from 19 outings), Manchester United’s away form was pretty ordinary and at times, didn’t really look worthy of champions. The paltry five wins that they did manage to muster on the roads all season was the least by an English club en route to becoming champions. They trailed 0-2 twice to teams that were eventually relegated (Blackpool and West Ham), lost each of their away fixtures against three of traditional top four(Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal) and were blanked 4-0 (albeit playing a second string side) by the Hammers in the Carling Cup. Most significant perhaps was their performance on a stage where they could have silenced their critics once and for all. As the majestic Wembley played host to what was billed up to be a spectacle, eventually turned out to be a master-class by Spanish champions Barcelona. Barring the first fifteen minutes and a little spark of magic from Wayne Rooney in the middle, United did not just look impotent, they simply weren’t allowed to play, such was the gap between the two teams on the night.
Thus despite having the numbers in their favour, Manchester United left a lot to be desired and their critics had their reasons to point daggers. A unique situation perhaps befitting an old adage,
“Statistics is like a bikini. What it reveals is suggestive but what it conceals is vital.”
Bad a misnomer?
Football these days is very much a results business (just ask the gaffers who’ve played the merry-go-round at Chelsea or Real Madrid over the last few years). It being so, it is ludicrous discussing how ‘bad’ ManUtd were given what they have achieved results wise. What the critics were perhaps insinuating is how the team compares with a) Rest of Europe b) some of the United teams of yesteryears.
As far as comparison goes, domestically, there isn’t one. United comprehensively saw off Chelsea in the quarters finals of the Champions League and simply outplayed the defending champions in what was supposed to have been the title-decider at Old Trafford. Arsenal might have been the only team to beat Barcelona in Europe but they were way too inconsistent to even guarantee themselves a direct qualification in next year’s Champions League. Manchester City to their credit not only secured a place in Europe’s premier club competition next season but also dumped their cross town rivals en route to FA Cup glory. They may be far more than ‘noisy neighbours’ but they hardly looked title-challengers. As for Liverpool, their resurrection under King Kenny was impressive but it was another season ending with, ‘next season could be ours’. In short, there weren’t near enough evidence to brand United ‘not good enough’.
Barcelona: Head and shoulders above the rest
As far as rest of Europe is concerned no team comes close to Barcelona and United proved no exception in this regard. Iker Casillas with his astute sense of foretelling predicted his side too would have demolished United at Wembley had Real Madrid reached the finals. In reality though, the account Mourinho’s men gave of themselves in the 5 ties against Barcelona this season, there wasn’t much to accede to the Spanish skipper’s opinion. Barring Real Madrid, neither the Germans, nor the Italians for that matter looked much of a match.
The comparison of this United side with some of Sir Alex’s previous championship winning sides throws up a far less direct but intriguing picture. On careful speculation, one cannot help but notice an obvious absentee, the lack of individual brilliance.
Former United No 7s who lit up Old Trafford
There was Eric Cantona in the mid 90, Giggs and Beckham on either side of the century and of course the dazzling Portuguese in 2007-09 seasons. For those of you more familiar with David Beckham’s off-field exploits you will be surprised to know that the former United no 7 twice finished runners-up for the FIFA Player of the Year (1999 and 2001). Among the current crop, Nani did show glimpses of brilliance early in the season only to lose his place to the predictable yet pacy Valencia. Rooney and Berbatov’s overhead kicks against Man City and Liverpool gave us goals to remember but as far as consistency goes, there weren’t any takers.
Thankfully for United, what this team did have like their predecessors is the team spirit fostered by their unrelenting manager Sir Alex Fergusson. There seemed an inevitability about United scoring despite going a man down against Bolton or against Everton when Rooney’s former employers seemed destined to earn a well deserved point at Old Trafford.
Equally significant were the contributions made by youngsters who were asked to step up to the plate. The Da Silva brothers, Chris Smalling and of course Javier Hernandez continued a cherished tradition at the Theatre of Dreams repaying the faith placed in them by Sir Alex Ferguson. One must not forget that United’s dominant display against Chelsea that effectively sealed their fate had its root in the manager being able to trust his young guns to see out a first leg lead in a match of as big a magnitude as the Champions League semi final.
Last but not the least, the commanding presence of a stalwart, the man United will miss most next season, Edwin Van der Sar.
Ferdinand Van der Sar and Vidic: Immense contribution
A glance at those glorious United teams of the past with their flamboyant attacking prowess shows, United always had a dependable stopper or rather a trusted trio. There was the Schmeichel-Bruce-Pallister trio in the early years of United glory followed by Schmeichel-Stam-Johnsen partnership during the treble winning period and finally the current rearguard comprising of Van der Sar, Vidic and Ferdinand.
The verdict
Ironically the year Manchester United become the most successful club in history of domestic football in England is the year they do not serve up a vintage display. A part of their success was surely down to their rivals being consistently inconsistent as for the first time in 10 years was a club able to lift the premier league trophy amassing only 80 points throughout the season. As far as the European front goes, there are no trophies in being proclaimed the second best and even if there was one, United are too big a club to settle for it. At the moment, not a team looks in sight of catching Barcelona. However, that being said, it is naïve to discuss how bad this Manchester United side is, after all if we use that word to describe a team with achievements that they did accomplish we shall surely run out of derogatory words to describe some of the other colourful teams across Europe!
