Last month Sir Alex came out on several occessions and played down any talk of the quintuple saying it was a pipe dream. Many thought he was just playing it all down, trying to take the pressure off his players. At the time United were on a run of 26 games undefeated and another run of 15 games without conceding a goal, so I was a bit unhappy with his scepticism.But watching United play over the last month, they look they have reached the 'wall' that marathon runners talk about. One minute they were running along at the the head of the field looking fine and then suddenly, WHAM, they hit the 'wall' and their legs have gone, their heads have dropped and they seem incapable of that explosive, quick fire football that enabled them to break records and go weeks without a hint of defeat.
Against Porto last night, they got caught out by the elctric start the Portugese made. Porto charged at them like men posessed and nicked an early goal. For 20 minutes I was praying for half time to come so Fergie could work his magic.
The game finished 2-2 and now United must break another record to advance further in the Champions League. No English team has beaten Porto away from home in 16 attempts but now that is the mission facing United.
It is not impossible, far from it, but it's going to be so very hard. For a start, we need our defence to be intact and we must field Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic and Evra and maybe, just maybe the golas will stop leaking in.
In midfield we need Anderson back, he has boundless energy, there are no goals from him yet but he can bully players and lend his stregth to the cause. Paul Scholes is a living legend, some say he is too old but still I have 100% fath in him, he too must play. Alongside these two guys must be Ryan Giggs, there are no more experienced players in the world than Giggsy and for this game we need his steadying influence. Ronaldo is an automatic choice, but please God someone tell him not to be so lazy like he was against Villa, he never once tracked back to help Neville who was being killed by Carew and Agbonlahor. Up front we NEED Berbatov, desperately. You can call him lazy, uninterested or whatever else you like but that's simply not true. He is as cool as cucumber under pressure. He can hold the ball up, he can make great innovative passes and he is agreat playmaker and he scores for fun!! Alongside him is the lovable Wayne Loony. This guy is my hero. No matter how lost the cause may seem, no matter how low the players around him are, he will always give 100% and will run and run and run.
Having wrote this now, I actually feel better myself. These guys are our heroes and we love them all. They NEVER let us down and this team I have selected here CAN and WILL go to Portugal and do what no other English team has ever done before them.
The tiredness and body language of the guys last night makes it seem impossible. But we must have faith and BELIEVE.
At the end of this season, no matter what United win, someone somewhere MUST look at the fixtures situation for the Prem League. As can be sen by the sudden demise of 'invincible' United, this fixture pile up is just not good enough. United are currently beginning a run of 5 games in 14 days. No one else in the Champions League is having to face that!!!
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