PROFILE/NEMANJA VIDIC:IT IS easy to tell Nemanja Vidic has made an impact at Old Trafford - he has a song dedicated to him. But more than that, jokes. Like the song Manchester United fans sing - "He comes from Serb-i-a, he'll f***in' murder ya, Neman-ja" - the jokes are based on Vidic's supposed ruthlessness. For example: why did Nemanja Vidic cross the road? Answer: no one has dared ask. If United are perturbed by this aggressive portrayal, they cannot really complain. The club's official profile of the 26-year-old centre-half begins: "Nemanja Vidic is a beast of a defender."
Considering Vidic is yet to be shown a red card in his 97 United appearances since moving to Old Trafford in January 2006, the reality of that image requires scrutiny. Vidic may be physical and robust but reckless violence is not his way and it is his controlled resilience and skill as a defender that, above all, has endeared him to United.
Vidic has made a difference and the biggest compliment to be paid is that he is noticed as much when not playing.
There have been comparisons with Steve Bruce over the past week or so, though in a way Vidic is at long last a true replacement for Jaap Stam. Good as they were, Laurent Blanc, Mikael Silvestre and even Roy Keane at times have not had the same bearing in the centre of United's defence as Vidic possesses.
"What adding Vidic to United's line-up has done is make them a much stronger unit," said Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate, a man who knows about central defence. "United's whole defensive unit has been the better for it."
Southgate has recent evidence for his assertion. Last month, with Vidic injured, Middlesbrough tore through United's back four at the Riverside and scored twice by going straight down the middle. Rio Ferdinand's partner that day was John O'Shea. Wes Brown was also tried there when O'Shea did not convince and Alex Ferguson admitted afterwards that United's defending was "haphazard". They had scrapped their way to a 2-2 draw.
The significance of Vidic could be seen in the statistics from that one afternoon alone: in United's previous six Premier League games they had kept six clean sheets. Vidic played in all of them. More than eight hours passed without a goal going in and more than anything in Middlesbrough, Vidic's absence affected Ferdinand, just as his presence does.
"Manchester United's defence is all about partnerships," Southgate said. "Vidic and Ferdinand complement each other so well. One is a classy number five and the other a classic number six. Vidic loves the raw skill of defending and attacking the ball in the air; the other, Rio, is elegant on ball and has pace to cover."
Together Ferdinand and Vidic were part of a defence that conceded only 22 goals on the way to a second consecutive league title - two titles in Vidic's first two full seasons. That is less than any United team since the Premier League moved to 38 matches in 1995.
In Europe United have been similarly mean. They began with three clean sheets in the first four matches of Group F and carried that through to the semi-final against Barcelona. Eight of 12 European ties, including the two against Messi Co, have resulted in clean sheets. By contrast, in last season's semi-final United conceded five against AC Milan over the two legs.
Significantly, Ferdinand missed both games and Vidic the first. In the second at San Siro, Vidic was well below 100 per cent fit and, as he reflected on it this season, said: "Unfortunately the away game came at the wrong time for us - we had a lot of injuries at that point and were playing games Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday. Milan lived just for that game. We were very disappointed at how we lost. That is not the real Manchester United."
Being real matters to Vidic, or as Ferguson put it: "He has that mentality of the proper, really authentic defender. Watch Vidic in training, and he'll batter Louis Saha and then pick him up, as if to say: 'This is my job, this is what I do.' I'll be yelling from the touchline: 'Watch the tackling, watch the tackling,' and Vidic will shout: 'Sorry boss, sorry boss'. But he's not sorry at all, he just loves defending."
He has done since playing as a boy in the small Serbian town of Uzice, where Vidic's father worked in a copper factory. Born in 1981, the town then sported the prefix Titovo - Tito's - an indication of the times and the place. By 14, Titovo was gone and so was Yugoslavia but football played on and Red Star Belgrade were on the doorstep asking for Vidic junior to come out to play with them. This was just four years after Red Star had won the European Cup.
Vidic's progress was assured - he was club captain by 21 - and national performances were beginning to catch eyes beyond Belgrade. Thus it was no surprise when Spartak Moscow made Vidic the most expensive defender in Russia in 2004, a detail which means that when Vidic goes back there next week, not only will he be familiar with the city, he knows the dimensions of the 84,000-capacity Luzhniki Stadium. Spartak share it with Torpedo Moscow.
"Vidic chose a tougher path (than other Serbs)," said Serbia's head of coaches, Stanislav Karasi, "but obviously a more efficient one. He enhanced his game while playing in Russia and owing to that part of his career he now puts in some marvellous performances for United. He gained the all-important experience with Spartak Moscow, which he never could have gained in Serbia. That helped him fit in with the great Manchester United team without much trouble."
And fit in he has. At United's celebration dinner after clinching the title at Wigan last weekend, Ferguson reportedly did the rounds of tables raving as much about Vidic as Cristiano Ronaldo. A measure of Vidic's cultural assimilation were the two examples he mentioned.
"The club currently has a couple of great individuals who are spearheading the generation," Vidic said. "You would have to come to our training sessions in order to see how professional Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are. They come first and act as true professionals and they're still eager to prove themselves as players. When you see how they approach work, all of us younger players get additional motivation."
Immediately after Wigan, Vidic said the players started thinking about Moscow. "It was a great celebration after the match against Wigan, but it wasn't a typical street parade, just a dinner party. That doesn't mean we didn't sing fan chants and joke around." You can imagine what one of those chants was, and who some of those jokes were about.
Nemanja Vidic Facts
Born: October 21st, 1981, Titovo Uzice, Yugoslavia.
Height: 6ft, 2½ins.
Club career: 2000-2001: Spartak Subotica (loan from Red Star, 27 appearances, 6 goals.
2000-2004: Red Star Belgrade (66, 12). 2004-2006: Spartak Moscow (39, 4).
2006: Manchester United (68, 4).
International career:
Serbia: Serbia (29, 2).
Honours: Serbian Superliga: 2004
Serbian Cup: 2002.
Serbia and Montenegro Cup: 2004.
English FA Premier League: 2007, 2008.
English League Cup: 2006.
FA Community Shield: 2007.
