Nemanja Vidic: Crucial to Manchester United's Champions League adventure

Nemanja Vidic

News that Nemanja Vidic will depart from Manchester United at the end of his current contract reignited talk of decline at Old Trafford. However, the Serbian’s exit could well be a solution to suit all parties given his slowing pace and increase in mistakes, as evidenced against Crystal Palace.

The veteran defender is still seen by many fans as the club’s best individual at the back, and while he remains a devastating opponent for attackers in last-ditch situations, he is beginning to become a liability due to age and its ravages on his sharpness of feet and mind.

Glenn Murray, returning to first-team action following a long-term knee injury sustained in May 2013, dominated United’s captain at times leading to the Serbian being awarded a yellow card after 58 minutes for hauling the striker down on the half-way line after miscontrolling the ball himself.

This wasn’t the first time Vidic has put his side under undue pressure either, with two defensive errors to his name in the league and one in Europe this season. While he does make up for these errors somewhat with his impressive average rate of defensive actions per game—14 in the Premier League and 17 in the Champions League—such is the way of the centre-back that just one lapse of concentration or sloppy technique can lead to disaster, and undermine a whole performance.

Against Palace, as United tried to play a higher defensive line to squeeze their opponents into their own half, he was often caught out high up the pitch without the afterburners to compensate for when his aggressive positioning was bypassed. Over the 90 minutes he made three fouls in or around the opponent’s half, while also failing to make a successful tackle in two attempts.

His performance wasn’t all doom and gloom of course. After all, United left South London with a 2-0 victory, having secured three points and a clean sheet. Vidic recorded three interceptions, cutting out chances and passes beyond David De Gea’s goal, and completed ten clearances. The defender also succeeded with a take on on the half-way line to show that he is far from incompetent at playing further up the pitch, but he certainly isn’t the unbeatable sentinel he once was.

Even at his best, the Serbian relied on his pace to catch up with attackers who slipped the net or out foxed his initial challenge. Who can forget all the retreats into his own half against the likes of Fernando Torres in the past, where he grappled opponents to submission with an unseen grab of the jersey or arm across a chest?

Unfortunately, he no longer has his safety pace to call upon when things go awry, yet remains an uncompromising and bold defender, who still looks happy to play a rough and tumble game even if he no longer has the physical attributes to negate the risks involved in doing so.

Moyes may understandably wish to eke the most out of his soon-to-be-departing captain before he leaves in the summer on a free, but sentimentality over one last grand hurrah in a red shirt, or hopes that he can be the team’s talisman by default through experience, should not deter his current manager from dropping him if these mistakes continue.

Playing higher up the field, United’s defenders must make sure every tackle and intervention counts, as well as being strong in the air and able to distribute the ball well.

Arguably, before injuries curtailed his involvement, Evans became United’s key defender last year alongside Rio Ferdinand who enjoyed something of an Indian summer in his magisterial and majestic role as sweeper-in-chief. It was the Northern Irishman that provided the required physical presence to keep order and enforce his club’s will upon would-be raiders of De Gea’s goal area however, and though he hasn’t enjoyed the same sort of status within the team so far under Moyes, he still looks to be the best choice to act as the back line’s keystone at present. Unfortunately, he is currently sidelined through injury once more, but he should be able to make a return soon.

Compared to his fellow defenders in regards to the performance indicators that are most crucial to playing a more aggressive role at the back against clubs such as Palace, Vidic is not the exceptional individual many may assume him to be. Jonny Evans, though slightly more error-prone, is more dependable in every other measure, while Smalling and Jones—their stats somewhat distorted by runs at right-back and midfield—are almost on par with their more senior teammate.

Man Utd Defenders Champions League Stats

Yet that isn’t to say that Vidic doesn’t have a role to play for the remainder of this season. Rather, he should be spared for the showcase contests of Europe where his statistics still outstrip most of his rivals for game time, especially as far as aerial dominance, pass completion the number of missed tackles are concerned. Much like United’s football in general, it could be argued that teams on the continent still hold a greater degree of fear and respect for Vidic & Co. then their Premier League counterparts, who have discovered that United can be gotten at of late.

Considering the defender’s comments following the Palace game—”I believe we can do something special in the Champions League. I really do.”—it seems as though Vidic too realises that his best and most valuable work can be done in Europe this campaign. It’s time to rotate the Serbian out of the domestic firing line in order to focus him on the task of leading United, just as John Terry did for Chelsea in 2012, to an unlikely, grand European finale.