BRIAN GLANVILLE
writes for worldsoccer.com each week.
GAMBLE PAYS OFF
30/04/08
Alex Ferguson, bombarded in the press after a wretched week, rides again, thanks to Paul Scholes’ dynamic strike, exploiting Zambotta’s blunder. Odd to think that in the first minute, Scholes, with his clumsy foul on the dazzling Lionel Messi, so nearly gave away a penalty; and somehow avoided being booked. Yet was Ferguson’s gamble, fielding a weakened team at Chelsea, fully justified? I’m still unsure.
After the criticism which rained down upon him for his misbegotten tactics in Barcelona and his daft decision to leave half a dozen first choices out of his initial line up at Chelsea, at least Alex Ferguson knew he could ideally have the last laugh against Barca at Old Trafford. But what mistakes he made!
At Nou Camp, he complained that Cristiano Ronaldo had not been given sufficient support. Well, whose fault was that? Who decided, for no apparent reason, to stick Wayne Rooney out on the right flank and thus, to a large degree out of the game? And what was the sense of giving Chelsea, in so vital a Premier League match, such an initial advantage at Stamford Bridge? True, United had their return match with Barca coming up just three days later, but by pretty much the same token, Chelsea themselves were due, the following day, to meet Liverpool again, at the Bridge.
“Diabolical” was the word which sprang yet again from Sir Alex’s lips, when Chelsea were awarded what was arguably a perfectly just penalty. In this, Fergie was supported by his garrulous Portuguese assistant, Queiroz, who drivelled away about United needing a gun to be given their just refereeing deserts. Teams that visit Old Trafford will tell you a very different story. And both men might have remembered that the only goal they did get at The Bridge was thanks to an abysmal mistake by a dopey Ricardo Carvalho, who obligingly turned to pass the ball back and straight to the eager feet of Wayne Rooney. Who, making light of a painful hip injury, duly ran on to score.
Nou Camp has been at times fairly benign to Fergie and United but luck has also emphatically been with them, not only in the most recent game, when United so pitifully failed to put pressure on a Barcelona team which had been shipping water for weeks (and if Lionel Messi was back on song, there was no Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o was firing blanks) but in their ultimately triumphant European Cup Final. That lucky day, Ferguson against all logic, stuck Ryan Giggs out on the right flank on his wrong foot while using the ineffectual Jesper Blomqvist on the left. Not till late in the game, when Bayern Munich had taken a 1-0 lead and hit the woodwork twice did Fergie come to his senses, take Blomqvist off, switch Giggs to the left, and use his incisive substitutes Ole Gunnar Solksjaer and Teddy Sheringham to win the game so breathlessly.
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Internazionale, like so many of the leading European clubs, are one in which native born players are at a discount. There is always of course the menacing heavily tattooed figure of Marco Materazzi, who was wheeled out last Sunday as a sub against Torino and powerfully headed an important goal.
But the cynosure was surely the 17-year-old, splendidly precocious striker, Marco Balotelli, preferred to such Titans of the game as Hernan Crespo and the highly expensive Suazo. Nor, once again, did he let Inter down, not only with his brisk incursions, but with the way he took right footed free kicks and corners, preferred, despite his age, to far more experienced team mates. Balotelli is a find indeed. Of Ghanian extraction but brought up initially in Sicily in Palermo.
All credit to Inter’s endangered manager, Mancini, for giving the talented youngster his chance. For this reason; one, Inter should think twice about replacing Mancini , who will surely bring them another titolo for the scudetto.
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You might say that at Stamford Bridge, the much criticised Avram Grant got much the better of Fergie, though it was largely by default. Getting the dynamic Michael Essien back into the midfield, he having missed the game at Anfield, was of great significance for Chelsea. But at Anfield, it was hard to make sense of Grant’s choice on the left wing of the ineffectual Malouda, and his insistence on keeping him there despite his dull display. Grant, this season, has made many a mistake, not least with his blunders in the League Cup Final at Wembley, But in this respect, he is hardly alone. The infinitely more celebrated Alex Ferguson surely joined him in the dock at Stamford Bridge. Though come to think of it, Grant that afternoon deservedly prevailed, by failings for once to fiddle with his team.
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Brian's latest book is England Managers. The book is published by Headline and is available online and in all good bookstores.
A new revised edition of Brian Glanville's definitive World Cup book, The Story of the World Cup, has just been published and is available from all good bookshops.
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