Ok, I am back and all that.
So, lots to catch up with. Since the last post came on one of the best days ever, it's obviously hard to follow it up.
So we got Berbatov. So Ronaldo is still playing in the Red of Manchester and not in the white of Madrid. All that doesn't matter anymore, the focus is back on what matters - 3 points at the end of 90 minutes. Like last year, we've had a phenomenally slow start to the season. Unlike last year though, the good thing is we've also had two of the toughest fixtures of the season behind us now. The law of averages did catch up with us against bindippers (it had to happen, sooner or later) and it was disappointing not to hold on and win at the bridge. Let's hope that the season kicks into gear now, that the players are fully match fit now and that we can get some consistency going.
One of the not so good things this season so far has been the fact that we've given up leads on two occasions and we've already conceded 4 league goals. Does that have anything to do with Carlos Queiroz no longer being at the club? It's slightly worrying and lets hope its a blip and not a trend that carries on this season. I still believe Rio and Vidic are the best central defensive partnership in Europe so there is no reason they can't repeat last year's stupendous performance. With Jonny Evans coming through nicely and Wes Brown a dependable deputy, we seem to be nicely covered at the back.
Now to something more controversial. How does Berbatov fit into the team? Fergie has built this team around the fluidity of the front 4 - that's usually Tevez, Rooney, Ronaldo and Giggs/Nani. They all work hard off the ball, they all exchange positions and drift in, drift wide throughout the game and that has proved fruitful over the last 2 seasons. Remember the speculation of "Where will the goals come from?" once Ruud left? Now enter Berbatov. We all know he's not really the most hard working of the lot. He's more like Ruud than he is like Tevez. Does Fergie want to revert back to a static central forward as a target man? Or does he want to fit Berbatov into this system?Is Berbatov going to be the first choice striker? On evidence so far, it looks like he will be and that means one of Rooney/Tevez will start less often. Competition is healthy and other managers would give their right hands to have this problem - but only time will tell if Berbatov's goal scoring rate will compensate for his lower work rate. It's early to judge him but so far, he hasn't contributed as much off the ball as United fans expect their players to. The only way that's going to be acceptable is if he scores 30-40 goals a season. So really, the bar is quite high for Berbatov and the sooner he gets into the goal scoring form, the better for all involved.
In Contrast, Ronaldo has really started from where he left off last season. He seems to be the destiny's child and we've missed his ruthlessness in front of the goal when he was gone. He has this unbelievable knack of making things happen in the box and long may it continue (until he moves to Madrid).
The league is incredibly tight and with Chelski having started all guns blazing, the margin of error is pretty low. Winning it three times in a row is probably the toughest thing in football at the moment - is it going to happen?
