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Verón the pioneer who showed Ferguson way to European domination
Juan Sebastián Verón was considered a failure at Manchester United, but his style was a pre-cursor to their current success.
Juan Sebastián Verón suffered from bad timing. He should have been born half a dozen years later. The Argentinian had thrived on the Italian scene but lost his bearings in the Premier League. In 2001, when switching from Lazio to Manchester United for £28.1m, Verón went to the right place at the wrong moment.
Caricatures, by definition, have truth at their core and it is roughly correct to say that European fixtures suited him better in that spell. There may have been as much frustration as anger in 2002 when Sir Alex Ferguson rejected journalists' doubts over Verón with the words, "Youse are all ... idiots". The following summer the player was sold to Chelsea at half-price. Suppose, however, he had been a 26-year-old in 2007, arriving at Old Trafford as the perfect signing to complete United's new approach. A Verón in his prime could have shaped the more studied play that Ferguson had been seeking. He would have flourished in deep midfield, showing off his technique and occasionally supplying a spectacular moment.
In this week of all weeks there is no reason to sigh over the failure of the Verón initiative. Over the course of these past two seasons United have turned into Champions League holders who seem quite well-placed to retain the trophy tomorrow. The way in which United currently operate must have been the one Ferguson had in mind when buying Verón.
In those days English football had a vestigial pride in its roughness and exciting disorganisation. Foreigners were supposed to get used to it. Some did but others never got over their bafflement. Nowadays the leading sides have the same philosophy as clubs on the continent and tend to outdo them.
United's approach does not vary much when they step from Premier League to Champions League. That seamlessness was achieved only after prolonged angst. Ferguson, after all, had soon discovered that the manner in which the Champions League was won so memorably in 1999 would never do as a standard operating procedure. "We got battered on the counterattack by Anderlecht and PSV," he said last week, thinking of away defeats in the group stage in the autumn of 2000. "Teams had worked us out quite easily. We were a complete 4-4-2 team, relying on the wide players to do a lot of defending for us and attack. We got strung out in those games, so we had to start thinking about playing three central midfielders to make sure we were not exposed like that again.
"So there were disappointments like that but, as you go along, there is a way you find that is suited to playing in Europe. I think with the kind of midfielders I have, the three helps us in European football. You keep the ball better, are far more patient and have more control of the situation than we used to have."
It has not been a purely philosophical exercise. The re-engineering faltered for periods and Ferguson made some bad moves. All managers do, and longevity in the profession belongs to those who can correct the blunders. Kleberson and Eric Djemba-Djemba are on the tip of the tongue for anyone out to illustrate Ferguson's fallibility.
Player recruitment was just one contentious area. Bringing a scheme to life needs expertise and, in a second stint as Ferguson's assistant from 2004 to 2008, Carlos Queiroz slowly helped to instil a deeper appreciation of the tactics. Ferguson himself unwillingly went through his own programme of re-education at the hands of Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese took Chelsea to the title in 2005 and 2006. A 3-1 win for Mourinho's side at Old Trafford in the penultimate game of his first league campaign was particularly chastening, with its demonstration of the visitors' capacity for maintaining a structure, getting 10 men behind the ball rapidly and attacking decisively at the right moment.
Mourinho is portrayed as an apostle of cynicism but his general ideas belong in the mainstream. While United go about their business in a broadly similar fashion to his line-ups, they enjoy panache in the form of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.
Still there is a thread of prudence to United. Patrice Evra, rather like Ashley Cole at Arsenal and then Chelsea, was an attacker in his youth who turned into an overlapping full-back for a period and, with tenacity and talent, now excels at barring the path to opponents on the left flank.
Such trends do not enthrall neutrals, many of whom would prefer to see free-scoring Barcelona win tomorrow. A relatively cautious United will cope with that dip in popularity so long as their fortunes continue to soar.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...-kevin-mccarra
Juan Sebastián Verón was considered a failure at Manchester United, but his style was a pre-cursor to their current success.
Juan Sebastián Verón suffered from bad timing. He should have been born half a dozen years later. The Argentinian had thrived on the Italian scene but lost his bearings in the Premier League. In 2001, when switching from Lazio to Manchester United for £28.1m, Verón went to the right place at the wrong moment.
Caricatures, by definition, have truth at their core and it is roughly correct to say that European fixtures suited him better in that spell. There may have been as much frustration as anger in 2002 when Sir Alex Ferguson rejected journalists' doubts over Verón with the words, "Youse are all ... idiots". The following summer the player was sold to Chelsea at half-price. Suppose, however, he had been a 26-year-old in 2007, arriving at Old Trafford as the perfect signing to complete United's new approach. A Verón in his prime could have shaped the more studied play that Ferguson had been seeking. He would have flourished in deep midfield, showing off his technique and occasionally supplying a spectacular moment.
In this week of all weeks there is no reason to sigh over the failure of the Verón initiative. Over the course of these past two seasons United have turned into Champions League holders who seem quite well-placed to retain the trophy tomorrow. The way in which United currently operate must have been the one Ferguson had in mind when buying Verón.
In those days English football had a vestigial pride in its roughness and exciting disorganisation. Foreigners were supposed to get used to it. Some did but others never got over their bafflement. Nowadays the leading sides have the same philosophy as clubs on the continent and tend to outdo them.
United's approach does not vary much when they step from Premier League to Champions League. That seamlessness was achieved only after prolonged angst. Ferguson, after all, had soon discovered that the manner in which the Champions League was won so memorably in 1999 would never do as a standard operating procedure. "We got battered on the counterattack by Anderlecht and PSV," he said last week, thinking of away defeats in the group stage in the autumn of 2000. "Teams had worked us out quite easily. We were a complete 4-4-2 team, relying on the wide players to do a lot of defending for us and attack. We got strung out in those games, so we had to start thinking about playing three central midfielders to make sure we were not exposed like that again.
"So there were disappointments like that but, as you go along, there is a way you find that is suited to playing in Europe. I think with the kind of midfielders I have, the three helps us in European football. You keep the ball better, are far more patient and have more control of the situation than we used to have."
It has not been a purely philosophical exercise. The re-engineering faltered for periods and Ferguson made some bad moves. All managers do, and longevity in the profession belongs to those who can correct the blunders. Kleberson and Eric Djemba-Djemba are on the tip of the tongue for anyone out to illustrate Ferguson's fallibility.
Player recruitment was just one contentious area. Bringing a scheme to life needs expertise and, in a second stint as Ferguson's assistant from 2004 to 2008, Carlos Queiroz slowly helped to instil a deeper appreciation of the tactics. Ferguson himself unwillingly went through his own programme of re-education at the hands of Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese took Chelsea to the title in 2005 and 2006. A 3-1 win for Mourinho's side at Old Trafford in the penultimate game of his first league campaign was particularly chastening, with its demonstration of the visitors' capacity for maintaining a structure, getting 10 men behind the ball rapidly and attacking decisively at the right moment.
Mourinho is portrayed as an apostle of cynicism but his general ideas belong in the mainstream. While United go about their business in a broadly similar fashion to his line-ups, they enjoy panache in the form of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.
Still there is a thread of prudence to United. Patrice Evra, rather like Ashley Cole at Arsenal and then Chelsea, was an attacker in his youth who turned into an overlapping full-back for a period and, with tenacity and talent, now excels at barring the path to opponents on the left flank.
Such trends do not enthrall neutrals, many of whom would prefer to see free-scoring Barcelona win tomorrow. A relatively cautious United will cope with that dip in popularity so long as their fortunes continue to soar.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/b...-kevin-mccarra
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