SOCCER:ALAN PARDEW regards Manchester United as being in the middle of a "transition" in which Alex Ferguson's team are striving to emulate Barcelona's fluidity while retaining defensive stability.
“United have tweaked their game, probably because of what happened in the Champions League final against Barca,” said Newcastle United’s manager, who takes his side to Old Trafford today with home fans still digesting the news that knee trouble will sideline Anderson until February.
“United are looking to improve and have a little bit more movement going on and a little bit more thought as to what they are doing,” Pardew said. “They are in a little bit of a transition but remain a fantastic and highly motivated team.”
After being outpassed, outmanoeuvred and, above all, outthought while losing the Champions League final, Ferguson appeared determined to evolve a fresh philosophy that would involve United playing much more imaginatively. A key to this more subtle approach seemed to be the pairing of a renascent Anderson and emergent Tom Cleverley in central midfield where Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher suddenly looked surplus to requirements as United switched to a thrillingly creative mode encapsulated by the 8-2 thrashing of Arsenal. For a short, perhaps illusory, period the defensive absence of Nemanja Vidic with calf trouble barely seemed to matter. United were conceding plenty of chances but still winning. Even the absence of Cleverley with a foot injury appeared surmountable.
Then came the travails of an October featuring the humiliation of a 6-1 home defeat to Manchester City and another injury, involving ankle ligaments this time, suffered by Cleverley, which will keep him out until Christmas.Yesterday then brought depressing tidings regarding Anderson’s knee.
“It’s in midfield where we’ve still got issues, with Tom Cleverley and Anderson going to be missing for a spell,” Ferguson said. “It’s not good news about Anderson, we don’t think he’ll be fit until February. He’s got this knee injury and we’ve sent him back to Portugal to see the specialist who operated on his knee last time. That’s a bit of a blow, we didn’t expect that one.”
While Ferguson would presumably love to sign an extra midfielder he said: “We’re not as bad in midfield as people think. We have Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher. If we get Tom Cleverley back for Christmas that’ll be a bonus. We’ll be okay, we have a strong squad.”
Nonetheless, they lack, glaringly, the retired Paul Scholes and Ferguson has been sufficiently concerned to have controversially reinvented Rooney as a midfielder. Pardew said: “Rooney’s a big part of United’s change in terms of having a bit more movement and making it a bit more problematic to pin them down. The midfield role does not diminish him. You don’t know where he’s going to go. He’s popping up everywhere.”
Pardew added: “Although they remain a major force, I think to play Manchester United now is probably a slight advantage because they’re in a bit of a transition. They’re getting better but the second half of the season is when they’ll really come into their own.”
