Fergie Not Only Exposed At Chelsea But He Has A Huge Hole To Fill

A cat and dog are two different creatures. A cat is smaller than a dog, but with sharp and long nails. Whenever the dog barks, the cat must run as fast as it can to its hiding place. But incase it can use its sharp nails well, well be it.

Before the massive game between English giants Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, many tipped blues to automatically dismiss the red devils.

With the team sheets available for all to view before the game, it appeared United boss Sir Alex Ferguson who had Wayne Rooney as a lone hitman, acted as the cat by preparing his team for the worst, a draw. While Carlo Ancelotti, the dog in this case, deployed the deadliest strikeforce (Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka) in the premiership alongside Frank Lampard, Michael Ballack and Brazilian born Portuguese Anderson Deco to raid United.

Fergie instead opted to pack the midfield with Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Anderson, Antonio Valencia and Ryan Giggs, which successfully blocked out Chelsea raids especially during the second part of the game.

Having Rooney as a lone striker means Manchester United simply had very limited opportunities to get the ball at Petr Cech’s goal area. Rooney is the kind of player who loves roaming the field, which means that at some point in time United are denied of goal scoring opportunity.

The United striker is no different from blues Anelka, who echoed out that he was mainly poached from Bolton to add onto Drogba’s scoring rate, and he is doing exactly that. It is the cutting edge, Carlo had over Fergie who should have deployed Rooney to add onto the extra man in the midfield and perhaps without injured Dimitar Berbatov, pushed Michael Owen upfront.  

If he wanted to play Anderson in this game, Ryan Giggs, who simply failed to produce magic, should have stayed on the bench. It explains why United had some decent chances in the Chelsea box especially with Giggs, Antonio Valencia and Anderson but could not make anything meaningful out of them.

While so many may argue that United were robbed by the Anelka goal, Fergie’s men had their chances to kill off the game. Fergie couldn’t have waited up to the 80th minute to bring on Owen and Gabriel Obertan who gave United energy to press Chelsea in the closing moments of the match.

Obertan in particular run rings around Chelsea backline, which had proved so difficult to crack in the first half. Ivanovic who had terrorized Patrick Evra with forward runs, stayed back to keep off the threat from the 20 year old Frenchman, who stated this week that he wants Cristiano Ronaldo’s role at Manchester United. 

Fergie simply has a huge problem upfront. With the departure of cristiano ronaldo in the summer, United is not scoring as many goals as they have done in the last two years. United can not rely on Berbatov and injury prone Michael Owen for goals. Rooney alone can not do an effective job for the red devils. United will have to go into the market with the 80 million pounds from the sale of Ronaldo if they are to compete fairly in second round and the other competitions.

However, Anelka proved again he is a big blues player. His free flowing moves towards the box were a joy to watch. The Frenchman has reinvigorated Drogba’s game after Carlo decided to pair them up.  Between themselves, they have produced eight assists. Drogba boasts 9 goals in the league already. Phil Scolari and Avram grant must be watching blues game in awe as the pair torment opponents.

Chelsea, with 30 goals in the premiership, have a great opportunity to lift the trophy they last won three years ago under the management of Jose Mourinho. With the arrival of Carlo, who has proved himself already in the premier league simply needs to maintain the spirit in the camp.

The diamond structure he introduced at the club has improved the team’s playing style as opposed the boring days under winning coach, Mourinho.

After the acid test against Manchester United, he must face high flying and scoring (with 36 goals in the league) Arsenal in a fortnight to ensure he rolls into the New Year with a comfortable lead.

The caution at the top of the premier league is supposed to help Carlo while his assassin Drogba, super sub, Salomon Kalou, midfield gem Michael Essien and John Obi Michel are away in Angola for the African cup of nations in January.