Count Out Manchester United at Your Own Risk

(Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Manchester United lost 2-0 to Liverpool yesterday evening. Please forgive me for stating the utterly obvious. It was a very insipid performance and will not do much to silence critics who, despite the fact that they are second in the league and going great guns in the Champions League, continue to claim that United lack the steel required for an unprecedented fourth successive domestic title.

This has also been a great opportunity for them to remind the United kin that Valencia is no replacement for Ronaldo, and that Giggs and Scholes are getting older, and that Berbatov is not worth his weight in gold.

Yes, their performance was thoroughly disappointing. They lacked a cutting edge in their play but, while taking nothing away from Liverpool’s victory, and as much as I hate to whine about referees’ decisions, I have got to say that even from a neutral point of view; Andre Mariner did not have his best game yesterday.

It seemed to me like he was nervous in making certain calls and was swayed by the crowds in making certain decisions. If the Vidic’s fouls were worth a sending off, how do you justify Jamie Carraghar not being sent off for his foul on Michael Owen when he was going clean through? And I can state a couple of other examples too where United did not have the rub of the green.

However, that is not the salient point of my article. I have been reading various news sites where journalists have, yet again, started questioning United’s mettle.

To be quite honest, I find it quite baffling how you can question the mettle and desire of a team who has dominated (even that could be an understatement of sorts) the English game over the last two decades after just one defeat. Even Sir Alex is not reading into it as much as the journalists and media are.

I feel that because United have been so successful over such a long period of time, many observers almost take pleasure, if I am given the luxury of calling it that, in seeing United lose. Headlines like ‘United on the ropes after defeat drops them from the top’ and ‘The Red Devils’ Cracks Beginning To Show’ are outright laughable. You just cannot read too much into a defeat when we are a mere one-third of the way through the season.

Did not Liverpool beat them 4-1 at Old Trafford last season, at a later stage in the season. Who won the title last season? The same team that got hammered that day.

Champions differentiate themselves from the rest not by going through every season unbeaten and unconquered, but by how they react to setbacks, both in terms of injuries and losses.

It is this bounce-back ability which sets United apart from their title rivals. Hardly ever will you see them lose more than one game at a time. In fact, past United squads have used such defeats as the perfect fillip to go on long unbeaten streaks and knock the wind out of their rivals, so to speak, so do not be surprised if the Red Devils hammer Blackburn this Saturday.

You can be sure that even though Sir Alex appeared bullish after the defeat, he will have given his players a god tongue-lashing behind closed doors. It would indeed be naïve, if not downright foolish, to think that Manchester United cannot win the title this season, as many people are opining in cyberspace.

Liverpool, on the other hand, I’d beg to state, are the ones under pressure because after this victory, supporters would expect them to turn a corner, and so any defeats in the next few games will make this victory nothing more than a false dawn.

Rafa Benitez has saved his job for now. For all the votes of confidence that George Gillett and Tom Hicks can give him, I think defeat here would have made certain sections call for his head.

I will go as far as to say that this victory does not open up a three-horse race for the title. I am more than sure that come the end of the end of the season, it will still be Chelsea and United fighting it out for ultimate glory. Liverpool and Arsenal are just not consistent enough in my books, or in most observers’ books, for that matter.

If people are thinking this defeat will derail United no ends, let me assure you that it will only make them stronger as a unit and as a team. If any are thinking of discounting United from the title race on the back of this one defeat to a team that has a habit of blowing hot and cold consistently, they are doing so at their peril.

The standings at the end of the season will be proof...

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