Defence points way forward for United

"People speak about the forwards and how good they are and the goals they've scored but they are also speaking now about our defenders." The Ronaldo-Rooney-Tévez triumvirate may be upholding Manchester United FC's fine attacking traditions, but those words of Nemanja Vidić support the view that United's presence in the UEFA Champions League final has just as much to do with their efforts further back where Rio Ferdinand and defensive partner Vidić and left-back Patrice Evra, in particular, have excelled.

Conservative
When Sir Alex Ferguson first took his team to the European summit in 1999, it was amid a flurry of goals: 29 scored and 16 shipped in eleven matches, with two clean sheets. En route to Moscow, by contrast, United have recorded eight shutouts in 12 ties, finding the net less freely (19) but conceding only five times.

Defensive blanket
Just as nothing defined their exciting offensive approach better than the two 3-3 draws with FC Barcelona in 1998/99, so we can look to last month's semi-final with the Spanish club for the clearest illustration of United's more conservative mind-set. United smothered Barcelona with a defensive blanket in a first leg at Camp Nou where Wayne Rooney spent much of the time defending on the right of midfield. There was caution too in the 1-0 victory in the Old Trafford return, a far cry from the 1999 semi-final against Juventus where United fell behind both at home and then in Turin before famously retrieving a 2-0 deficit to prevail 4-3 on aggregate.

Counterattacking
The romantic ploy of simply outscoring the opposition only worked so many times, however. In the 2001/02 semi-finals, Sir Alex's dream of a final appearance in his home city of Glasgow died when United lost the lead twice in a 2-2 first-leg draw with Bayer 04 Leverkusen, then again in the ensuing 1-1 draw in Germany. It is a defeat that still rankles. "We should have won," he told reporters before departing for Moscow. The following campaign heralded the arrival of Carlos Queiroz as his assistant and United's gradual embracing of a more counterattacking philosophy. Having leaked 45 league goals in 2002, as bad as any season since 1990, they improved to 34 the next year. This term's goals-against total in the Premier League was just 22.
 
Queiroz influence
Queiroz's return in summer 2004 after 12 months as Real Madrid CF coach accelerated the process. Describing the work of Sir Alex's No2, defender John O'Shea told uefa.com: "He has worked very hard on giving us different ideas about how to kill a game off and how to expand our game to get from defending to attacking very quickly. I think you have seen that on lots of occasions, but also having the patience to keep the ball because in Europe the teams are so good that you do a lot of work if you don't have the ball."
 
Criticism
The shift in style has produced irresistible results in the last two seasons – never more so than this, with the interchanging Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney and Carlos Tévez drawing mesmeric forward patterns – but, when the first two were still maturing and the slower Ruud van Nistelrooy led the line, there was criticism in some quarters. During a September 2005 defeat by Blackburn Rovers FC, United fans began chanting "4-4-2" as a reaction to what they saw as negative tactics.
 
Winning formula
United scored only three times as they were eliminated in that term's UEFA Champions League group stage and there were even calls for Sir Alex to step down. How long ago that now seems. Sir Alex himself spoke about the fear of failure that "drives you on" while he reflected on Thursday on the process of cultivating today's exciting crop. "Rebuilding this particular team and bringing all these young players together over the last two or three years definitely gives you the optimism you can do it again." And so he has: it may differ from 1999, but the Scot, hunger undiminished at 66, has found another winning formula.