when he jogged over to take his place in Porto's attack
among the Manchester United defenders for the first time
last night. Out on the left there was his old South African
mate Quinton Fortune and next to him was Wes Brown. Then
there were the two Neville brothers, but not where he might
normally find either of them.
‘When Sir Alex Ferguson leaves himself this short of central
defenders, then he is forced into improvisation. As a
tactical challenge, shoring up United's leaking defence has
not really been a case of who is best but rather who will
do? When United face a team who have banged in 61 goals in
28 domestic games this season, the answers have to be good.
Gary Neville in the middle of defence is an option Ferguson,
as United's manager, takes when the hand dealt him is the
worst at the table.
‘Although Neville stands about as tall as Mikael Silvestre,
the full-back has nothing like his pace on the turn. The
right side is where Neville belongs, where his range of
crossing has extended and improved since the departure of
David Beckham. Last night was not a disaster for Neville,
never mind the result. He has made a virtue of coping with
tests like this throughout his career - coping with quicker
wingers and tricky midfielders.
‘Strange how the question of United's central defence is
starting to look like the unsolvable dilemma of England's
left side. Without Rio Ferdinand, there are simply not the
personnel to address the task. So it falls to Ferguson to
rest a hand on someone's shoulder at breakfast and walk them
down the hall for a chat about tactics. Yesterday he chose
Gary Neville's experience over John O'Shea's recent form.
O'Shea is still miles away from convincing Ferguson he has
the muscle and the cynicism to hang tough in the middle of
defence.
‘Quite how Ferguson allowed himself to be marooned in the
knockout stages of the Champions League in February with
only two specialist central defenders that he trusts is
still a mystery. When he was asked this week whether he
regretted not buying another defender, the question seemed
to hang in the air for an eternity while Ferguson
concentrated on wrestling his temper back into its box.
‘But one statistic stands out above all others. When the
real test arrived last night in the Estadio do Dragao
against a Porto team with more attacking ideas than anyone
United had faced this season, it was telling that only one
of Ferguson's five summer signings - Howard - was in the
starting XI.’