‘Having encountered a storm in Oporto during the week,
Manchester United found no port in the storm that continues
to wash away their hopes of retaining the Premiership title.
Unexpectedly leaving Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ryan Giggs on
the sidelines for 70 minutes as two of five changes from
Wednesday's defeat in Portugal, they went ahead with Louis
Saha's almost inevitable early goal against his former club
but conceded a costly equaliser to Luis Boa Morte.
‘Recent defensive woes were not assuaged by the deployment
of Roy Keane in a back four missing the suspended Gary
Neville as well as Mikaël Silvestre and Rio Ferdinand.
Worse, Chelsea's lucky victory at Manchester City relegated
United to third place. So from standing three points in
front of Arsenal early in January, they are now nine behind,
having dropped seven in the last three matches alone.
‘It was reasonable to ask why neither Van Nistelrooy nor
Giggs had appeared earlier - 70 minutes earlier, in fact -
but Ferguson was keener to stress his annoyance about the
referee's debatable decision not to award United a penalty
soon after the equaliser.
‘Kean had concocted Fulham's strategy for the match at the
hospital where their manager Chris Coleman has been
recovering from a serious virus - he hopes to be released in
the next 48 hours. It had to be revised when United's team-
sheet arrived in the home dressing room at two o'clock,
causing as much surprise as in the press-room and the
stands. Even then, Fulham were expecting to find Keane in
midfield as usual, with Phil Neville at the back.
‘Reversing their roles worked reasonably well for half an
hour, Ferguson claiming that "we had good control of the
match" until the home side began a spirited recovery. But it
seemed perverse to gamble as he had done in the meeting at
Old Trafford in October, leaving out Paul Scholes and Keane,
and suffering a 3-1 defeat. There was some uncertainty too
from Roy Carroll on a rare appearance between the posts;
regular first-choice Tim Howard was suffering from a slight
stomach strain.
‘Now Ferguson faces another balancing act when the teams
meet again at Old Trafford in the FA Cup next Saturday,
three days ahead of the second leg against Porto. Few United
supporters will feel he had it right here.’
Guardian:
‘When the team sheet, with Manchester United inexplicably
shorn of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs and Tim Howard,
came through half an hour before kick-off, some wag
mischievously suggested United were playing a weakened team
to save themselves for the FA Cup next Saturday. It is, he
quipped cheekily, all they have to play for.
‘Two hours later, with Roy Keane simmering all the way to
the dressing room, Phil Neville kicking out at the turf, Van
Nistelrooy looking bewildered and their grip on the title
defence down to a little fingernail, it was no joke for
United. Sir Alex Ferguson, who when things go wrong has a
stock of loaded questions to ask of officials, players,
opponents, rivals and shirt colours, must now ask one of
himself. What was he thinking? His bizarre team selection
backfired so damagingly that United slipped not only further
away from Arsenal, but also below Chelsea. They now find
themselves out of the automatic Champions League places on
goal difference.
‘This was patently not the time to take such an
extraordinary gamble. The sight of Fergie railing against a
penalty decision in the final analysis was predictable and
did nothing to detract from the real controversy. Had his
power players been on the field during a first half in which
Fulham played like a relegation team, United would surely
have been out of sight before any penalty issues came into
it. Van Nistelrooy, he said, felt jaded after the midweek
defeat at Porto. But the Dutchman had enough legs to sprint
full pelt on to the field to remonstrate with the officials
when he was still an unused substitute in his tracksuit.
Shopped by the fourth official, Graham Poll, he was booked.
It was that kind of day, one of self-inflicted wounds for
United.
‘Fulham were astounded when they caught sight of the
opposition. 'We were out on four of our guesses,' confessed
assistant manager Steve Kean. 'No disrespect to the guys in
there, but it did give us a lift.' Without a league win for
four weeks, they needed one.
‘In the end the target for Fergie's rant was aimed at match
assessors, for being responsible for the officials who were
responsible for not giving his team a penalty. 'If they are
not doing their job they shouldn't be here,' he fumed.
Desperate stuff. He sounded like a man at the guillotine
complaining about the quality of his last meal.’
Telegraph:
‘Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson virtually saw
his hopes of retaining the Premiership title flushed down
the Thames after tinkering with his team more dramatically
than Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri in what represented one
of the biggest gambles of his managerial career.
‘Ferguson invited ridicule by dropping Ryan Giggs and top
scorer Ruud van Nistelrooy and asking captain Roy Keane to
drop back and plug the defensive hole left by the suspension
of Rio Ferdinand for failing to take a drugs test. At the
final whistle, that threat had hardened into humiliation as
his side dropped into third place, nine points behind
leaders Arsenal, looking for the biggest miracle of his
reign to hold on to the title.
‘Keane performed as competently as one would have imagined,
but could not prevent United conceding an equaliser that
leaves their title hopes barely afloat. In fact, they have
failed to keep a clean sheet against Premiership opposition
since Ferdinand began his ban and the two goals Porto scored
against them in midweek may yet scupper their Champions
League ambitions.
‘Van Nistelrooy and Giggs were thrown on and the combination
ought to have provided an 85th minute winner. Van
Nistelrooy's miss, though, suggested maybe dropping him was
merely a matter of form, rather than for daring to suggest
that United missed David Beckham. That now falls into the
realm of the bleeding obvious.’
Times:
‘The Premiership title is draining away from Manchester
United. They had an argument that they should have won at
Fulham yesterday but the referee denied them a blatant
penalty when Edwin van der Sar body-checked Louis Saha.
‘But in a harum-scarum 90 minutes it could also be said that
United deserved little better than one point, and
contributed to it by their team selection. Sir Alex returned
from Porto either with some inventive gambling in mind, or
wrathful over the performance there. He made changes to
every department of his team, from goalkeeper to centre-
forward. Maybe he simply felt that the line-up had enough
quality and class to take the points at Loftus Road, or
maybe he was teaching one or two celebrated United players a
lesson.
‘Ferguson could have put two fingers up at this moment. I
don’t doubt he would have done, but there in the stands
above him was Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president squeezing in
a football match between Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing
Street.
‘Blatter had commandeered 66 places in the main stand for
his entourage. Doubtless there were refereeing experts among
them, and at times it seemed that Alan Wiley was the most
nervous man on the field. The referee took two names before
half-time, Davis for a late tackle on Scholes and Brown when
his linesman drew attention to a high tackle on Steed
Malbranque. But at least the Fifa president did not announce
any rule changes during half-time.
‘Too late, United put van Nistelrooy and Giggs legitimately
into the fray. Their one telling combination, five minutes
from time, saw Giggs put the Dutchman through but, from six
yards, Van der Sar rushed towards him, blocked the ball, and
it squirmed tantalisingly away from van Nistelrooy.
‘A draw in the end, one that will have lifted the spirits of
Chris Coleman, the Fulham manager who is in hospital with an
infection of the leg, but did nothing for the blood pressure
of Ferguson. They meet again at Old Trafford in the FA Cup
on Saturday.’