THE INDIE:
If football is now a business, then the answer to the Premiership's woes is clearly what every businessman knows: listen to the paying customer. A week ago Manchester United supporters, frustrated by two seasons without a trophy, one goal in three games and a home defeat by Blackburn, chanted "4-4-2" at Sir Alex Ferguson and his unpopular assistant Carlos Queiroz.
Yesterday Ferguson unexpectedly obliged them, just as Chris Coleman had done at the end of last season when Fulham supporters demanded the same change from an unenterprising 4-5-1 system. The effect was a glorious throwback to the era when United were last beaten here, more than 40 years ago.
Five goals flew in during as exciting a first half as anyone could wish to see, even at the London admission prices United's manager recently decried. In a game as unpredictable as the weather, his side recovered from the loss of a bad goal in the second minute to claim a first victory in four League games on the back of an outstanding performance by Wayne Rooney, restored to his rightful position alongside the prolific Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Some rank bad defending on both sides contributed to the entertainment, with England's Rio Ferdinand as guilty as anyone. But when did anyone other than coaches ever complain about that? Fulham's problems at the back were if anything the worse of the two and stemmed in part from Coleman's brave decision to leave out Zat Knight as a disciplinary measure, allegedly after an unauthorised visit to a nightclub.
THE OBSERVER:
Whatever the future for Keano, Manchester United will not be lacking for a spiritual leader so long as Wayne Rooney continues carrying the red flag in such rampant fashion. The teenage tyro, who was well assisted by dynamic surges from Park Ji-Sung and typical ruthlessness from Ruud van Nistelrooy, ensured Sir Alex Ferguson and his public were in the mood to applaud one another at the end of a see-saw afternoon.
'Attack, attack, attack' had been the refrain of United fans during the previous week's shocker against Blackburn. They swept forward with venom enough to outscore Fulham, and it was just as well they did, as they struggled to defend, defend, defend. It was not a day either back line will look back on with much enthusiasm. But what the heck, when both teams play with two up front and the result is an absorbing five-goal thriller.
Ferguson sprang a surprise with his team selection. The tried but no longer trusted 4-5-1 was abandoned for the old-fashioned 4-4-2 that United perfected in the past. It has been a while since Van Nistelrooy and Rooney led the ensemble together, and with Ryan Giggs and Park patrolling the flanks, the balance of the team looked more promising. In the second minute, the dusted-down masterplan was shredded as Collins John marauded forward to give Fulham an early booster.
When Brian McBride nodded a long ball into the Dutchman's path, John took on Rio Ferdinand. The ball bounced inadvertently off the back of John's arm, and Ferdinand - who would have been better off defending rather than appealing - was left with his hand in the air as John skipped on to flick the ball past Edwin van der Sar. The striker was delirious, and brimming with ambition for more. An emergency tackle from Kieran Richardson a moment later prevented John from bustling into shooting territory again.
THE SUNDAY TIMES:
Manchester United showed England the way here yesterday, eschewing 4-5-1 in favour of 4-4-2 and playing Wayne Rooney not as an ersatz winger but as an orthodox striker. They were rewarded with a man-of-the-match performance from their gifted prodigy and another restorative win — their second in five days.
Boring, boring football? These two teams gave that fashionable canard another good kicking here in an edge-of-the-seat scrap that could easily have ended 4-4. Fulham scored in the second minute, setting the stage for an incident-packed afternoon worth every last penny of the admission money. If Rooney was the star of the show, Ji-Sung Park was not far behind, the South Korean winger’s pacy, purposeful running and clever passing an engaging feature of all United’s best work.
United’s vociferous travelling contingent had arrived chanting the name of Roy Keane, he of the itchy feet, and were still nodding appreciatively at the return to 4-4-2 orthodoxy when Fulham took the lead.
Little more than a minute had gone when Mark Crossley launched a long clearance in the direction of Brian McBride. The American got up well to beat Mikael Silvestre in the air and nod on to his fellow striker John, who bustled his way past Ferdinand’s flimsy challenge on the edge of the penalty area, then Kieran Richardson’s attempt at a recovery tackle, before shooting in low from 15 yards.
The goal was well taken, but a bad one to concede, with Ferdinand less than authoritative.
Suitably encouraged, Fulham went about their work with vim and vigour, and looked anything but a struggling team who have won only once in the League. Unfortunately for Chris Coleman and his players, just as they seemed capable of settling on their lead, United hit back hard.
After 17 minutes, Park burst through the middle at pace, and after he had gone past two challengers the third, Moritz Volz, knocked him. A penalty it was, and Van Nistelrooy made short work of it, shooting low into Crossley’s left-hand corner.
United completed their transformation within two minutes, Ryan Giggs and Park exchanging passes before the South Korean bisected Fulham’s central defenders and played Rooney through. The young firebrand did the rest with aplomb, shooting coolly past Crossley from 16 yards.
Fulham returned to the fray with great spirit and no little skill, and had their deserved reward after 27 minutes, when Claus Jensen’s inswinging free kick from the left went in, untouched by anybody in the goalmouth, at the far post. Ferdinand effectively sold his goalkeeper a dummy, stretching out a leg as if to intercept the ball but then withdrawing it, leaving Van der Sar flat-footed and helpless.
Fulham needed to get to half-time without conceding again, but United were not about to oblige. Giggs, evoking memories of his halcyon days, went past Volz and Alain Goma, then cut the ball back invitingly for Van Nistelrooy, who would have scored at point-blank range but for Carlos Bocanegra’s last-ditch intervention beneath his crossbar.
United would not be denied, though, and with seconds of the first half remaining, Rooney beat the offside line with his pass through to Park, who centred from the right for Van Nistelrooy to make it 3-2. Rooney, outpacing Goma in the inside-left channel, threatened to provide United with a two-goal cushion at the start of the second half, but his shot drifted wide across the face of the goal.
THE TELEGRAPH:
Give us back our boring football! We want 4-5-1! Just when Premiership football seemed ready to take itself into the drawing room with a pearl handled revolver, it decided to turn the gun on negativity instead to produce an old-fashioned encounter befitting the surroundings of Fulham's lovely antique of a stadium.
The creaky old Cottage is a Premiership anachronism in these days of shiny, Lego-style stadiums and the £757 million state-of-the-art Wembley national arena that is to be unveiled soon. Allegedly. So it was fitting that it should host a game that looked as though it was being beamed into the ground from an old newsreel. Goals all over the place, mazy runs, thumping shots from 50 yards, central defenders falling over one another. And Wayne Rooney.
The only people guaranteed to have loathed every entertaining minute of it were the two managers and their coaches, particularly United No 2 Carlos Quieroz, the high priest of defensive football and the man accused of turning the club from the Harlem Globetrotters to George Graham's Arsenal.
If the England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson had been here, he would have been drooling over the prospect of Rooney - finally restored to his rightful place alongside Ruud van Nistelrooy up front - taking apart Poland in next week's final World Cup qualifier at Old Trafford. But he would have been alarmed by Rio Ferdinand's performance in central defence. He was at fault for both Fulham goals.
kamikaze football, but he draws the line at kamikaze defending, especially from a player who spent so long prevaricating over signing his new contract in the summer.
United also survived one of those goalkeeping howlers that haunted them for most of last season when Edwin van der Sar, a model of consistency up to yesterday, watched a Claus Jensen free-kick arc right across his penalty area and then curl behind him and the post he was supposedly covering. Even so, Ferdinand was an accessory before the event by shaping to steer the ball for a corner before withdrawing his foot.
None of those errors could erase Ferguson's satisfaction, however, as he ended another difficult week with a win that will restore United's hopes that they can win the title, regardless of Chelsea's claims that they will have it won by Christmas. Reports of a dressing-room revolt and captain Roy Keane's announcement that he will quit at the end of the season disrupted their preparations, but Fergie's team ended it with a second important victory in five days.