Missing the Point

(Image from here)

A combination of Matt Hughes and Harry Redknapp provide a poetic view of Saturday's match in The Times:

“Every time they get the ball there is movement around them,
Someone’s popping off.
Berbatov is coming short,
Rooney’s pulling into a position,
The wide man is coming off the line into holes.
It’s fantastic.”

Henry Winter in The Telegraph emphasises the all-round quality of the performance by going through the people who could have been man of the match:

To Giggs’s right, Anderson had his backers for the man-of-the-match honours. Working busily, the Brazilian finally delivered a consistently effective performance, giving United the lead with a neat 20-yarder.

Many onlookers would argue that United’s third goalscorer dominated 90 compelling minutes. Rooney tormented Tottenham’s defence, saw off one right-back in Vedran Corluka and exhausted another in Alan Hutton. Rooney also struck a fabulous goal, showing pace, technique, physical strength and a touch of impudence in sliding the ball through Carlo Cudicini’s legs. “One of his great moments,’’ noted Sir Alex Ferguson. “With his courage and ability he attacks people.’’ ...

The vanquished manager, Harry Redknapp, hailed Darren Fletcher as deserving the headlines. Fletcher was terrific, all energy, hunger and sound ideas in possession. His pass to Rooney for United’s third, the ball bent into the striker’s path, was like David Beckham in his pomp. ...

The list of star turns lengthened. Helped by Giggs’s shrewd positioning, Patrice Evra was able to storm down the left, enjoying a battle royal with Aaron Lennon, one of those duels worth the ticket price alone.

And elsewhere he points out what has always been obvious - that Ronaldo going has its plus points:

Ronaldo’s move to Real Madrid means more individuals taking more responsibility. United always seemed to have someone available, always someone making a clever run into space. “Our one-touch play carved them open time and time again,’’ said Ferguson.

A point also made by Kevin Garside, in relation to Rooney:

Ronaldo who? That is a T-shirt waiting to happen if Wayne Rooney continues to evolve into an amalgam of Duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton. For all his preening brilliance, Ronaldo never tucked a goal away the like of United's third at Tottenham. Rooney was a raging bull in slippers, muscling his way towards nirvana on his tiptoes.

Sir Alex Ferguson has taken his cue from Fabio Capello. The maturing of Rooney from boy genius to world great has stiffened Capello's England proposition going into the World Cup. Capello had little choice in placing Rooney at the creative hub of his England side. Ferguson had Ronaldo at United 12 months before the Croxteth man-child arrived. The hat-trick against Fenerbahce on his Champions League debut at Old Trafford was the calling card of a higher being. Five years on, with Ronaldo gone, Rooney is polishing the personal treasure, perfecting the shine on the added dimension he has introduced to his game.

And by Mark Fleming in The Independent:

For possibly the first time this season, champions Manchester United made a compelling case they can win a record fourth successive league title, even without Cristiano Ronaldo.

The most impressive element of a deserved victory that ended Tottenham's 100 per cent start to the season was United's collective purpose and energy. They have lost Ronaldo, but they appear to have gained something in his place, something that could ultimately make them an even a better side. The cult of the individual has gone, replaced by a renewed belief in the common good. Those within the United camp have been saying the loss of Ronaldo, and to a lesser extent Carlos Tevez, is of greater concern to outsiders. Players like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes – both of whom were outstanding against Tottenham – recognised there will be rewards to be reaped from Ronaldo's departure.

For one thing, other players will get a chance to take free-kicks again. This time it was Giggs' turn, with a superbly judged effort over the Spurs wall that dipped beyond the hands of goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini to level after Jermain Defoe's first-minute goal.

Giggs revealed afterwards players are queuing up to take free-kicks now you-know-who has left. He said: "Nani has scored at Wigan. Wayne [Rooney] wants to take some, and myself. We have been practising a lot more than we have done in the last three or four years. We've not had a look-in with Cristiano here."

Although I'm not exactly sure how much we were missing Ronaldo when we hammered Wigan 5-0, still, nice to see the papers catching up.
Kevin McCarra in The Guardian seems a little miserable at our performance, mixing slight praise with pessimism:

The skill, enterprise and industry of Wayne Rooney at centre-forward could have been anticipated but Anderson took everyone by surprise. Following Giggs's equaliser, the midfielder scored with a low left-footer in the 41st minute after a Paul Scholes effort had been blocked by Ledley King. On his 56th start for the club, the Brazilian had delivered his first goal. That meagre return on the £18m transfer fee for a player bought in 2007 has been a great disappointment. Ferdinand mentioned that there had been glimpses in training last week of what the 21-year-old can do, but the fact that Anderson was at Carrington is a reminder that he is not in the reckoning with Brazil for the moment. United do need to see younger players shouldering more of the load. Giggs, despite having now scored in every Premier League season since the start of the competition in 1992, might not be timeless. Scholes is feeling all of his 34 years.

Graham Poll is right about Scholes' second yellow but wrong about pretty much everything else:

Scholes was lucky to only get a yellow making the argument over his second yellow card spurious. There can be no appeal over yellow cards but it was disappointing to see Tom Huddlestone clutching his face following the second challenge, seemingly to convince Marriner to see the challenge as cautionable.

The same motive seemed to motivate the Manchester United players in the 25th minute after Wilson Palacios tripped Dimitar Berbatov. At least three United players surrounded Marriner who would, I believe, have produced the yellow card without the pressure.

The FA has a new regulation regarding three or more players surrounding a referee and it will be interesting to see if they charge the champions.

Onto the quotes. Rio and Giggs on Anderson:

"The lads have been seeing it coming from Ando," says Rio Ferdinand.

"During the international break he as had time to train and he has been showing glimpses of what he can really do.

"He scored a good goal in the reserves so I think he has got the knack back now with his scoring. Hopefully he can go on a good run now and score some goals because if he does that he can be a top-class player."

Ryan Giggs added: "Ando has had a bit of stick because of not scoring and his celebration!

"We are all pleased because his performances have been really good since he came to the club and he is a top, top player. He knows that he has to add goals it his game. Hopefully he will score a lot more."

Rio on the bad start:

“The start was a bit of a wake-up call.

“It hit home that I was back playing in the first team.

“It came as a surprise to us all. But it bumped us in the right manner. After that we got the ball down and played some of the best football we have played this ­season.

“We dealt well with it when we went down to 10 men. We continued to pass the ball around and more or less dominated the game.”

Sir Alex:

‘We’re improving all the time. There’s no reason why we can’t win the league with these players. Look at Fletcher and the way he’s playing. Then you’ve got the experience of Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville.

‘It’s going to be tight but I’ve got confidence in them. That’s probably the best we’ve seen of us this season. Our one touch football carved them open time and again.’

And this from The Sun has a few quotes from Sir Alex and this from Vidic, looking forward:

"I can assure you everyone at Manchester United will be very unhappy if we fail to win the competition this season.

"Our expectations have not gone down because of the rebuilding. Our goals are the same - to win the Premier League and Champions League. Perhaps on paper we are weaker but on the pitch it is a different matter."

Vidic is convinced Michael Owen can help fill the gap left by Ronaldo and Tevez.

He added: "He's dangerous from all positions so you always need to be focused and on your toes."

It will be United's first game in the competition since being outplayed by Barcelona in the final in Rome.

But Vidic said: "None of us are thinking about last season's final any more. I'm only thinking about how we can become the best team in Europe again."