This article is a re-post and merge of my now defunct OurFootballBlog football writing blog from 2010 – 2011.
In the aftermath of Manchester United’s failure to get past Bayern last night the only thing I’ve heard is excuse after excuse after excuse, personally I don’t buy any of them but lets take a look at the best excuses made.
Excuse 1. Typical Germans
Oh how I laughed when Fergie blamed, not Bayern or their multicultural, multiracial squad, but ‘The Germans’ for employing sinister tactics during the game. I can’t see Sepp Blatter, German, Fifa President (who is totally bananas by the way but completely unrelated to his nationally – just look at Platini for evidence there) being too happy with Alex Ferguson over that one and wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest to see some form of fine / ban coming his way for those comments and rightly so. I didn’t really see a lot wrong with a lot of went on, so Rooney took a couple of tackles on his ankle – no more so than usual in my opinion, and we had the ref surrounded for the sending off, again nothing out of the ordinary there. As for ‘The Germans’, most of those were in the stand, I’m not sure why any of this is their fault!
Excuse 2. The Sending Off
I’m a big fan of Rafael but for me both cards were clear cut, especially in Europe. Tackle no1 is petulant because he didn’t win a free kick himself – he probably should have done but that’s beside the point, straight forward yellow card no augments. Tackle no2 is a little softer, however, if you will grapple an opponent as he races towards the box whilst you’re on a yellow card then you’ve got to expect to be sent off. The argument here was there were two players still to pass and it was 35 yards from goal, ok I accept both points and that it’s not a sending off, but it still doesn’t mean it’s not a yellow card!
Excuse 3. We Were Unlucky
These get better and better, Manchester United weren’t unlucky in the slightest. If you read my musings pre-match you’ll know I thought they massively underperformed in the first game, luck had nothing to do with that one. Last night they played well for 40 minutes, and then poorly for the rest of the match, granted down to 10 men, but they were poor nevertheless. At what stage then did they deserve to win the game? When they were 2-1 down in Germany, or when they conceded two away goals last night. In short, rubbish.
The difference is Rooney, again…
When Rooney was in the starting 11 last night I was flabbergasted, but part of me half expected it, because Fergie knew they wouldn’t win this without Wayne limping around the pitch and he was vindicated in that decision. There was a key moment that changed the game last night and it came around 60 minutes in, nope not the sending off, I’ve covered that already, what I’m referring to here is the substitution of Wayne Rooney and yet again I’m not talking about the magic of Wayne Rooney, but the deficiencies in the rest of the squad. The minute his number went up, Manchester United heads went down and we saw a shorter version of the Chelsea match the week before, no-one took lead, no-one drove the team forward and they all started formulating the excuses they’d use in the post-match interviews – let’s not forget at this stage they were still going through to the next round.
This team needs to get a grip and lose the Rooney excuse, perhaps a long term injury for the striker wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to the team after all? One thing to me is clear, they need a big signing this summer and that’s not a striker, a tricky winger or a record setting transfer, but the signing they need has to be a household name (at least in football households) that players respect and can lead a side through thick and thin whether Rooney is on the pitch or not.
