UEFA Champions League: Will Defensive Lapses Come To Haunt Manchester United?

Away matches at Fulham and Everton have sought to bring forth an unfamiliar frailty in a usually watertight Manchester United defense. While optimists will look towards the two games as two points gained, especially compared to last season when United suffered comprehensive defeats at both Craven Cottage and Goodison Park, I would rather regret the situation as four points lost, especially since United were leading and playing comfortably going into the final minutes of either game.

This lack of ruthlessness is not United's hallmark, in fact, far from it. Despite Chelsea winning the Premier League last season, United had the best defensive record, a record which is already under strain, and which will be put to further questioning in the Champions' League, a tournament which becomes decidedly tougher than the Premier League as it progresses.

Its not as if United are facing a particularly daunting situation in this season's group stages. Rangers, despite winning the Scottish Premier League last season, hardly boast the quality, especially defensively, to prevent United from scoring at least two-three goals, especially at home. But they also have the quality in Beattie, Naismith, and Miller to trouble an out-of-form United backline, and it might be interesting to see what happens in the game at the Ibrox stadium, where United don't have too good a record.

Valencia are a highly unpredictable side, and despite having lost both the Davids, Villa and Silva, they have an impressive squad, and quality throughout the starting XI, even with Roberto Soldado out with injury. They have started the La Liga campaign well, and should cause an adequate amount of trouble to United, both home and away, and both in attack as well as defense.

Bursaspor have come into the Champions' League for the first time, and have found a decent group to be put into. They are unknown quantities, and will look to take advantage of this to make inroads into other teams in the group. However, United should have enough quality to deal with them.

Its only in the knock-out rounds that United will face serious trouble. If Everton and Fulham can take advantage of lax United defending, the likes of Madrid, Barcelona, the two Milans, Bayern Munich, and even Arsenal and Chelsea will be licking their lips at the prospect of facing United. This has rarely been the situation in recent years, with most teams hoping to avoid the Red Devils.

Gary Neville no longer cuts it at this level, Johnny Evans tends to make schoolboy errors, and even Evra seems to be suffering from the World Cup hangover. With Wes Brown still dealing with injuries, and John O'Shea also making mistakes during games, United fans can't wait to see Rio Ferdinand back in the side alongside the till-now solid Nemanja Vidic.

Neville has to be replaced by the energetic Rafael da Silva at right back, and Fabio da Silva has to be brought in to give a semblance of competition to Patrice Evra for the left back role, especially since the youngster did quite well in the Community Shield against Chelsea.

While I'm agreeable to the fact that the Silva twins are quite young, yet, they do have good experience already, especially Rafael, who had contained Frank Ribery quite well against Bayern Munich until the street-smart winger got him sent off last season. That incident would have helped the learning curve of the young Brazilian, and he would be all the better for it. It is about time he was thrown into the deep end of the pool.

United have to hope for an injury-free campaign for their two premier centre-backs, Ferdinand and Vidic, especially since they formed arguably the best central defensive pairing in Europe two seasons ago. With Evans struggling for form, were either of the two players, and especially Ferdinand, to suffer from an injury lay-off (again), United will have to dip into the transfer market in January to buy an excellent centre-back as Ferdinand's replacement.

The goalkeeping department seems to be well covered, with Tomasz Kuszcack being an able deputy of the evergreen Edwin van der Sar. Should the backline hold up well, the goalkeepers should not be a concern for United, especially since Kuszcack is an excellent reaction keeper and has made superb saves on several occasions.

Manchester United are in unfamiliar territory with regards to defensive mistakes, but their previous successful campaigns, both in England as well as Europe, have been built on the bedrock of a solid defensive unit. Few teams can lay claim towards such consistent defensive excellence. If United want the UEFA Champions' League trophy to adorn Old Trafford this year, they would do well to heed their own advice of previous years : play to the whistle.

PS : The unbelievable part of this new-found inconsistency in defense is coming to the fore when the first team coach is a former centre-back himself, Mike Phelan.