PERHAPS, IN hindsight, Alex Ferguson may reluctantly have to admit he was wrong to take such a calculated gamble with the fixture list. Manchester United's manager had turned down the opportunity to give his players another day to prepare for this match and, in doing so, he was blatantly asking too much of them, writes DANIEL TAYLOR
United looked so flat, so weary and so laboured it was difficult to know whether this was a brilliant result for Porto or a chance gone abegging? The 23-time Portuguese champions, the club Ferguson once mocked for “winning all those Portuguese league titles in Tescos” will be entitled to feel that United got off lightly.
The damage could, undoubtedly should, have been far more substantial and when it comes to looking for a reason it is difficult not to apportion some, if not all, of the blame on Ferguson’s decision to play Aston Villa at 4pm on Sunday rather than switching it, as Sky had offered, to a lunchtime kick-off on Saturday.
Ferguson explained in his programme notes “the Villa game was massive for us after losing the previous two league games.” It had been a “dilemma” but he wanted those players who had been away on international duty to have an extra day to prepare. “I was tempted to get Villa moved to the Saturday,” he admitted. “However, we had so many players on international duty in places like Bolivia, Rio de Janeiro and Korea, involving some very long and tiring journeys, I thought it best to go with Sunday.”
Nonetheless, it opens Ferguson to allegations of not taking Porto seriously enough. It was a considerable risk given it meant seven of the players in his starting line-up here had only two days to prepare.
Ferguson thought the atmosphere of a big European night would “get the adrenaline flowing and give us the energy we need”. But at this level the players need to be fresher than that. The Champions League is not a tournament in which you can experiment. Not at this stage of the competition.
Against Villa it had been shocking to see United’s defenders look so vulnerable when their opponents attacked with pace and purpose. Here they had Nemanja Vidic available again to replace the creaking Gary Neville, but it made little difference.
This was to be another evening when collective and individual mistakes threatened Ferguson’s blood vessels and, in truth, they got away with it. It is no exaggeration to say if Porto had been more clinical when it came to punishing United’s errors the return leg next Wednesday might now be little more than a formality.
Not defending properly, Ferguson said after the 3-2 defeat of Villa, was part of United’s charm. Maybe once. Yet it is only back in late February we were marvelling about them keeping more clean sheets than a hospital matron and, in the process, establishing several new records in defensive excellence. Now, six weeks on, United supporters might have genuine misgivings that if they continue to defend like this it could have devastating consequences.
The crowd at Old Trafford were watching through the latticework of their fingers from the moment Jonny Evans allowed Lisandro Lopez to elude him and fizz in a shot at Edwin van der Sar in the third minute.
That set the tone and within a minute Cristiano Ronaldo had committed the football sin of giving away possession inside his own half. When the ball came in from the right, Evans fluffed his clearance and Porto, thanks to Cristian Rodriguez, had the away goal they craved before most of the players had even got a scuff of mud on their shorts.
The frequency with which Evans was to wave an apologetic hand during the course of the evening was nothing short of alarming. The same can be said, too, of John O’Shea, whose usefulness as a football odd-job man does not disguise the fact he has never been able to recapture the form he demonstrated in his breakthrough season.
Alongside Nani, O’Shea is now in the role that was once filled by Darren Fletcher, namely as the player the Old Trafford crowd worry about the most. There was loud condemnation at one point, after yet another pass had gone to the feet of an opposition player. This was a nervous crowd and Ronaldo brought more audible dissent when he lost the ball again and made no attempt to retrieve it – just as he had done in the build-up to Villa’s second goal on Sunday.
Ronaldo just looked tired, as did most of the other players in red. Ferguson admitted afterwards it could have been fatigue but also pointed to a lack of concentration. He said Evans had left the field with a suspected groin injury and would miss the next match.
Guardian Service
