Ferguson minus plot equals United

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson again complained about not being granted enough injury time, but his tactics throughout the match Saturday are what sent United packing.

Apparently believing the hype of certain outlying, individual performances over the past few weeks saw Ferguson start the home match against mid-table Aston Villa with an overly cautious 4-5-1 approach, with several players again expected to play better than they generally are.

Ferguson believed a starting eleven featuring Wayne Rooney uncomfortably alone up top, Ryan Giggs as the central, creative driver, with only Valencia and the Ji-Sung Park to overlap would be enough to beat Brad Friedel, arguably the best goalkeeper in the top flight over the last decade.

But the manager's reliance on Giggs and Rooney as the soure for impetus and innovation going forward indicates as much of his crooked perception in his own player form as bringing on Michael Owen—for Rooney—when United desperately needed a goal.

The stubborn persistence of this tactic employed will see United lose out to Chelsea for this seasons' EPL crown as most followers already predict.

The inoften times Giggs unlocks a defense or confuses a defender are happily exaggerated in the general public, leading to a surprising growth in legend for the Welshman over the past few seasons.

But his growth is mainly in legend only, for his inability to boss games, much less hold on to the ball consistently or unlock defenses, are eagerly overlooked for the outlying occurrences of any successes.

Wayne Rooney, by this account, is having another inconsistent season fluctuating from mediocre to only above average. Despite the incessant hype and world-wide adoration from the casualist of fans, his most explosive years in the top flight trace back to wearing a blue shirt, or in his earliest United campaigns.

Then he wasn't robotically trained to pickup the ball left of center, inevitably going to his right, without faking or attempting any sort of guile, to pass square or backwards.

Rooney past used to duck his shoulder, shrug off defenders, and both belt and curl shots from range past pony-tailed goalkeepers. But in the Youtube era, his reputation precedes him each match, and defenders know his disinclination to attack them head-on, use his left foot, or dribble to his left side.

Simply put, when a forward players' greatest asset is his penchant for tracking back, or the intangible "heart" he posesses, there is quality and potential being masked and left wanting.

There's less doubt that Rooney can be more than a serviceable striker for a perennial global top-five club, but certainly not playing alone up top in a pedestrian formation formation usually reserved for away matches at Europe's continental giants.

Ferguson's player selection didn't help Rooney's or United's cause.

Although fully fit, Dimitar Berbatov was left on the bench, despite having recovered from a knee injury that interrupted a run of fine form for the Bulgarian. Ferguson said recently that he was "completely satisfied" with the classy linchpin, but his selection doesn't mirror his spoken platitudes.

Berba returned from injury Nov. 28 against Portsmouth as an unused substitute. He then started the following match, running the game against Tottenham for the first 60 minutes, before inexplicably only appearing as a sub in the last two matches.

Without Ronaldo to beat defenders and create space, United need their best creative players in their spine, and Berbatov has proven this year to be their absolute best in that regard.

The United head coach also optioned Park Ji-Sung on the wing across from Antonio Valencia, who, despite improving, is consistently expected to do too much going forward.

But most of Park's value to United went awash when Ronaldo left. The Korean's purpose at the club was to defend as much as Ronaldo attacked, compensating for the void left by the former Ballon d'Or winner whenever he burst forward.

Without such an obstensible attacking winger to foil, there's no real reason for the clumsy but tenacious Park to be gifted a start in a side gravely lacking in verve. Like a poor man's Rooney, Park's best quality is his engine and back-tracking, useful attributes--when you need them.

The complete exclusion of the spider Gabirel Obertan, who has only impressed in his spotty performances this season, shows a crotchety reluctance by Ferguson to give the young, dynamic attacker a starting berth, a philosophy contrary to the manager's supposed motus operandum as a promoter of younger talent.

And when it all went wrong Saturday night, the knighted gaffer continued to err in reason. Instead of finally and mercifully pairing Rooney and Berbatov together to field his most attacking, flowing side, duly assuaging the audience's expectation for enterprising football at Old Trafford, Sir Alex replaced Rooney with Owen.

But despite what recent headlines read, a happenstance hat-trick in a European rubber match has not warped Owen back to 1998 as a prime finisher and integral ingredient in the England national team.

Owen was not instantly restored to his former self after finishing thrice against Wolfsburg, and until he consistently resembles a predator, he can't be expected to patch over his manager's tactical mistakes, saving matches after they're already lost.

If he is to be the ace in the hole for United's current campaign, Alex Ferguson is clearly believing too much of what he's been reading.

The romantic headlines United's attackers garner are reflective more of each's inconsistency then they are a trustworthy expectation of form throughout the year.

Without allowing Berbatov to dictate play from the beginning, playing 4-4-2, or letting starlets like Obertan or Tosic grow by fire and balance a void for originality in the center, needless setbacks against lesser sides will continue to mar a sub-par year for United.

Bifurcate

It's refreshing to watch United win without Rooney or Giggs, if only to be spared the fawning ballyhoo they receive following a game they even only marginally influence.

Such was the case midweek in the Carling Cup against Tottenham, when a youthful United side without the two superstars beat Spurs old-fashionedly, with stout defense, concise passing, and a rampaging midfield, with a dose of class from Berbatov up top.

Though Darron Gibson got all the headlines, more importantly, it was a team performance in a match containing flow, reciprocity, and good spirit, all encouraged by a laisse-faire approach in an excellent showing from referee Mark Clattenburg.

Last weekend, though, the media's two favorite British players were once again forcedly elevated to Pantheon status, glossing over what was otherwise a pretty poor display from the Manchester reds at home to Portsmouth.

A frustratingly tentative United side could have gone into the tunnel at half-time down if not for Pompey's abysmal finishing and Kuszczak's Brobdingnagian goalkeeping.

Almost immediately after the intermission, United scored their only goal from open play to seize and keep the numerical advantage. The best pass of the move was from Fletcher forward to Giggs, who in turn played forward deftly—but simply—to Rooney who finished neatly—but somewhat fortuitously—under the onrushing goalie.

The floodgates were opened. United poured through. When the rainclouds cleared, the scoreboard read 4-1. But the truth was not alone constructed by digits.

The two players who appeared most on the scoresheet at match end—Rooney and Giggs, with four goals and an assist between them—were actually two of the worst players in red, especially for the first half.

Rooney was quiet and unproductive, maundering, producing no inspiration, turning past all of zero defenders. Giggs was misplacing passes left and right, perfunctorily getting the ball stolen from his slight frame and slowing feet, out-swinging corner kicks fruitlessly.

Only Giggs was marginally better in the second half from open play. Pompey were stretched, knackered, and mentally beaten. Only then did the Welshman produce two good passes which, along with his late free-kick and assist, somehow ended up representing his whole performance.

Lost to selective memory are all the misplaced touches, poor decisions, and lack of physicality that really comprise most of Giggs' forays these days. Lost to the greater good is each instance Rooney can't hold off, turn past, or drive through defenders, drifts completely out of influence, or gets caught offside needlessly.

It's not that good players, on even great days, do everything perfectly. But when they weren't having even a good day, they should be credited as such, without special weight given to either the exceptional few acts of quality, or a serendipitous goal return.

To be fair, whether it's Ryan Giggs or Randy Couture, aging athletes are easy to get behind. But at least in the mixed martial arts world, where discourse is fueled and driven by a youthful Internet community's online forums—not in newspapers or megasites—the latters' real stature is known self-evidently as merely entertaining, not competitively qualitative.

In football, though, a wishful perception recycled and promoted repeatedly becomes reality.

Goal.com editorialized Rooney's performance as such: "His every flick was delightful, shooting exceptional and link-up play effortless. Without the United No. 10, the fires of the comeback would have been impossible to stoke."

Such vivid imagery. The writer added in the player ratings, "[Rooney] finished all his chances superbly and didn't give the Pompey center-backs a moment's rest." Both the elder Welshman and the balding scouser received a nine rating, while players who actually played better , like Kusack, Valencia, Fletcher, and even Scholes, had lesser marks.

You wonder if the writers are sponsored by the FA and England's 2018 World Cup campaign, or just caught up, like most others, in cultivated group-think, consuming and fostering the Rooney brand.

On Match of the Day , the dim Alan Shearer thought Giggs was "absolutely sensational," literally highlighting Giggs' only positive moves on the 90 minutes as justification. Mark Lawrenson incorrectly added "Giggs and Rooney were difficult to play against today" before Gary Linekar obligatorily and needlessly concluded "as they so often are."

It can be easy to get caught up in the hype and romance. But football should be judged where it's played, beneath the layer of hope-fulfillment and emotion, beneath the artificial film of production aesthetics and commentary. It's during those 90 minutes where players' quality is expressed, not in the arbitrary sensationalism written afterwards.

Though Rooney is at times better than most players, he is not yet in the world class, and it appears it never will be without developing his left foot and dribbling.

Giggs is mostly unable to cope or create against midfields better than the mediocre majoity in the incongruous Premier League.

But, just as Rooney and Giggs were cultivated as all-beating heroes last weekend, Gibson took home the crown after belting two wicked goals Tuesday against Spurs.

Several pundits likened him to Roy Keane, apparently because they're each Irish, because the United player most emulating Keano on the pitch is actually Scottish.

Goal.com correspondingly titled their United-Spurs match report "A Star is Born." It's click-worthy, but really, it's stretching. A following editorial reads "Darron Gibson Could Be the New Frank Lampard at Jose Mourniho's United." Now that's definitely a shameless combination of hyperbole and whimsy.

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