SOCCER/UEFA Champions League: There is a shady secret at Old Trafford. It is no disgrace, but Manchester United would prefer it if word did not get around. After all, they have their reputation to think of as the devil-take-the-hindmost club.
They carry that image as the heritage of all the flamboyant decades. As the proceeds from the Far East show, it has made them the most marketable of teams. Yet they remain the English side most likely to profit in the Champions League for particularly unexpected reasons. The United players know how to defend.
That could pass for a misconception after the 5-3 win over Newcastle on Saturday. The airwaves were certainly full of disparagement that night. There were enough possible culprits for Laurent Blanc to be excused scapegoat duty. All of the scolding, though, applies purely to the Premiership.
United are the side best equipped to win the Champions League because of their powers of resistance.
Admiration for Alex Ferguson's band has, for well-chronicled reasons, gone out of fashion. Fabio Capello, the Roma manager, prefers to call Arsenal "the strongest side in Europe at the moment", partly because he wants to pelt Arsene Wenger's line-up with compliments before tomorrow's match.
Nevertheless, experience has made United hardened adversaries. A comparison of the statistics for the group phases in the past two seasons leads to surprising conclusions. Over that stretch of 24 fixtures, since the late summer of 2000, they have conceded only 19 goals.
With Arsenal, on the other hand,over the two group phases in the previous couple of years have yielded a hefty total of 33 goals. It is scarcely the record one associates with Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Sol Campbell and all the other stubborn Highbury types.
The effect must be sapping. It is purely the deficiencies in the back four, after all, which make Newcastle the least fancied of the Premiership representatives to advance to the quarter-finals. With Kieron Dyer, Hugo Viana, Nolberto Solano, Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy in the ranks, they cannot be treated as poor relations in any other respect.
Bobby Robson may well be among those adventurous spirits who believe they can prevail even if they have omitted to adopt security measures.
United trade on the marked stability that has evolved over numerous campaigns in the tournament. Last season was ignominious by Ferguson's standards, but they very nearly bustled into the final. United were denied only because Diego Placente, the Bayer Leverkusen defender, headed a Diego Forlan lob off the goal-line.
Ferguson has joined those who ask whether the attrition of the Premiership has worn down players who have been in United's service for so many gruelling years. It is possible, however, that the same men, as a corollary of that, are now psychologically suited to rising to the prestigious occasions that continue to excite them.
The mixed results in the Champions League substantiate that viewpoint. The figures point not so much to waning powers as to a wavering attention span. Carelessness gave Maccabi Haifa two goals at Old Trafford and a diluted line-up allowed them three more in the return match.
The fixtures against the opponents who emerged with United from the group are far more illustrative of the true capacities. Confronted with Leverkusen once again, Ferguson's side won 2-1 in Germany and 2-0 at Old Trafford.
No one rhapsodises about the indomitability of United, particularly since injuries and acclimatising to an exorbitant price-tag have prevented Rio Ferdinand from bringing the full force of his talent to bear. In fact Arsenal, with a miserly four goals given up, have every right to declare themselves the more resilient force in the Champions League this season.
United's long-term consistency in the competition, however, demonstrates that defence is not always about defenders, and the injury to Blanc should not incapacitate them. They avoid putting themselves at risk by judging where and when to go on the attack, particularly when Roy Keane is around to govern proceedings.
With their bank of knowledge the team have the means to flourish. It is of some help, too, that they also happen to be in the puniest group.
Ferguson will again be forced to field a patched-up defence when his side return to action against Basel tonight. Ferguson, already without Ferdinand and Gary Neville, is now unable to count on the Blanc, who limped out of the victory over Newcastle United with a calf strain. That leaves United with relatively inexperienced Irish international John O'Shea, and Wes Brown, as their only fit central defenders.
Ferguson, also without David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Roy Keane in midfield, is mindful that United must make a better fist of dealing with Basel's playmaker Hakan Yakin than Liverpool managed a fortnight ago.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
FC BASEL (4-3-1-2): Zubi; Haas, M Yakin, Zwyssig, Atouba; Ergic, Cantaluppi, Chipperfield; H Yakin; Gimenez, Rossi.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-4-1-1): Barthez; P Neville, O'Shea, Brown, Silvestre; Solskjaer, Veron, Fortune, Giggs; Scholes; Van Nistelrooy.
Referee: V Ivanov (Russia).
FC Basel v Manchester Utd Live on TV3 and UTV, 7.45
