Manchester United: Defensive Frailities Should Be Fergie's Biggest Worry

Strikers win games, defenders win titles is the old saying and there are few clubs that this is truer for than Manchester United. Over the past three seasons, two titles have been won. During those two title, Sir Alex Ferguson could rely on Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra along with a utility man of his choice, whether that be John O'Shea or Wes Brown. However, during last seasons campaign, the United defence was decimated by injury to the extent that Michael Carrick filled in at centre back on a number of occasions. Subsequently, the title was Chelsea's to lose after seven defeats over the course of the season left Manchester United off the pace.

It is difficult to see if there is one player that is changing the game in that defence or is doing more work than the others, it is much more likely that the combination of the three is the effective component of that defence. Therefore, to take out Rio Ferdinand not only takes away his ball playing style of defending but also breaks up the consistency. As seen against Fulham and, to a certain extent, Newcastle, Vidic and Evra can look out of place at times without the guide and the cool head of Ferdinand. Vidic looked entirely out of sorts against Fulham as he tried to fill the void left by Ferdinand and Evra also looks lost without the presence of Ferdinand.

The same also happens if any other component of the three is taken out, Vidic missed games last season and Ferdinand attempted to compensate for this by throwing himself into challenges and taking on the Vidic mantel and any game that Evra misses, United suffer in attack as well as defence unless someone like Park is positioned in front of the full back.

This is not to say that United do not have capable replacements for these players, Johny Evans looks every bit the composed yet ruthless centre back he promised to be and both Fabio and Rafael have added bite to their game in order to adapt to the premiership but throwing these players into a back line that has played together for over three seasons is daunting for any player.

The relationship between these players is without a doubt one of the best in football and the understanding between them allows Van Der Sar the luxury of a world class defence in front of him but problems arise when one of these is missing and the other two seem to struggle to adapt.

The strike force is by no means the problem for United this term, it is the ability to cope when one of the stars is out and this does not come down to technical ability, it comes down to the team mentality and the calm and easy transition between personnel.

United must sort this out if they are to hold onto leads better than they did against a mediocre Fulham side last Sunday.