The watching Barcelona manager will have learned little as his counterpart, Sir Alex Ferguson, shuffled the pack
Sir Alex Ferguson took the low road to Wembley on Wednesday night, at least by comparison with his great predecessor Sir Matt Busby, who watched his side draw 3-3 with Real Madrid in front of 120,000 spectators at the Bernab�u to reach the momentous final of the 1968 European Cup. By withholding some of his most potent and reliable weapons against Schalke, Ferguson also took a short cut to what may turn out to be the Premier League's decisive fixture, against Chelsea on Sunday.
The resistance provided by Schalke in the second leg was no more impressive than the German side had been able to muster on their own ground eight days earlier, which is to say no better than might be expected from a team currently in the bottom half of the Bundesliga. So Ferguson got it right when he made nine changes from the side that had started the opening match, keeping his most powerful forces fresh for the weekend.
On the day United announced a flat-rate increase of �1 a match for season ticket holders for 2011-12, Ferguson chose to deprive spectators of the chance to see, among others, his entire first-choice back four and the player he described in his programme notes as "our senior icon", Ryan Giggs.
"I didn't sleep last night worrying about it," he said afterwards. "I woke up four times thinking of different teams." He may have been joking. Eventually he decided that they were all Manchester United players, imbued with the necessary qualities, which he enumerated as "desire and determination, allied to ability". There was certainly more than enough of all three last night to reduce the match to something less than a contest.
Before the kick-off, doubts were being cast from all sides on Ferguson's selection. No one, however, has a more intimate understanding of what it takes to balance the requirements of a concurrent challenge for the two biggest trophies available to an English club. This was Ferguson's 195th match in the European Cup, and while winning the trophy twice with United he has secured 11 league titles. Who could argue with his policy last night?
Michael Owen, perhaps. Nine changes, and still poor Owen found himself stuck on the bench, despite being a bit of a senior icon himself, although not at this club. Only Edwin van der Sar ? another falling into that lustrous category ? and Antonio Valencia remained in place from the team that started the first match.
Was this a bit of an insult to Schalke, given that a two-goal margin is hardly conclusive? It will certainly have been something of a disappointment to Pep Guardiola, who flew to Manchester in time to take his seat in the front row of the directors' box but must have felt, when the team sheet was pressed into his hand, that he would learn little of value for Barcelona's encounter at Wembley on 28 May.
Guardiola's players are unlikely to make a present of the ball to United in the way that Jos� Manuel Jurado did in the 26th minute, allowing Anderson to slip a square pass to Darron Gibson. The Irishman promptly produced a perfect defence-splitter which invited Valencia to run on and shoot under Manuel Neuer, the man who had held out for more than an hour in the first leg.
Gibson was one of the supporting cast with a point to make, and that 30-yard pass ranked among the best at Old Trafford this season. Five minutes later he fired a 20-yard shot straight at Neuer, only for the hero of the first leg to fumble the ball into his own net. If Gibson was attempting to show his many critics among United's supporters that he can become a credible replacement for Paul Scholes, then here was of statement of sorts.
Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling, paired last night at the heart of the defence, are among Ferguson's other young players awaiting a definitive verdict. According to Rio Ferdinand, in an interview in last night's programme, the 23-year-old Ulsterman and the 21-year-old Englishman are "great young players with big futures at this club". In time, he added, "I'm sure those two will be the bedrock of the team." But it was Smalling whose error threw the United defence off balance and created the opening from which Jurado atoned for his earlier blunder.
Ferguson's "senior icon" remark was prompted by the presence of Schalke's Ra�l, whom he once described as the best player in the world. "I will enjoy watching him at Old Trafford," he said. But there was little for an aesthete to relish as Ra�l struggled, like the rest of his team mates, to make an impression, a second-string defence denying him the opportunity to add to his 71 European Cup goals.
Long before the end it was merely a question of how many United would score. Meanwhile Rooney, Hern�ndez, Giggs, Park and the others were preparing themselves for yet another of those dates with destiny that represent a way of life at Old Trafford.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/may/05/sir-alex-ferguson-manchester-united
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