Ferguson Reluctant To Put Faith In The Kids This Time...

There was very little in common between an abject Manchester United and a resurgent Chelsea when the two sides met at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime. United, call it jet lag, burn out, jadedness, all three if you must, were second to most balls while Chelsea, were the first to score and ultimately had the last say.

What has become more similar between the two teams however are their respective ages. United had an average starting age of 30 at the Allianz Arena in midweek and that with Nani and Rooney starting over Giggs and Berbatov. Age has always been something more synonymous with the blues and their strategy of buying players at a primed stage of their careers.

However Ferguson, ever since the emergence of his golden generation some fifteen years ago, has maintained a youthful side, maybe not to a Wenger extent, but certainly to a degree which has allowed for a number of them to bed in a side consistantly re-stocking the trophy cabinet. Scholes, Bechkham, Giggs and the Nevilles were all part of a side that forced Alan Hansen to eat his words after he said you cannot win anything with kids...

Yet to prove whether they are of the same calibre and reliability, the beauty of hindsight and United's improvement in the latter stages of the Chelsea game, suggests that Nani, Macheda, Gibson and the unused Rafael would have provided somewhat of an unknown yet dangerous quantity if started. As opposed to Giggs, Scholes, Park and Neville, none of whom were particularly effective or spritely for that matter.

But with United now chasing top spot as opposed to fending others off, a position that sometimes has less pressure associated with it, Ferguson will surely begin to throw caution to the wind. Expect a livelier line-up against Bayern and maybe even fetching Fabio and Hargreaves from the creche and infirmary wouldnt be a bad idea, Evra and Fletcher are showing signs of unsurprising fatigue.

With youth in the side, you can never be sure what to expect as far as the league is concerned. THIRD or FIRST beckons....