Creaking Cracks in the Red Devils?

As the final whistle blew in the Stade Velodrome on Wednesday evening, with it came the completion of the first legs of the Round of 16 in the Champions League. The ties have been fascinating in the most part, with some truly brilliant games, perhaps none more so than Arsenal’s scintillating 2-1 victory over the much hyped Barcelona team.

One of the key themes of the Round of 16 has been the success of those teams from the Barclays Premier League. The teams from North London were particularly impressive, dispatching of two European superpowers in AC Milan and the previously mentioned Barcelona. Chelsea recorded a somewhat routine 2-0 victory over a Copenhagen team who didn’t seem particularly up for the game, but for Sir Alex Ferguson’s troops it was to be viewed as a missed opportunity.

For their game was a dour affair, with Ferguson himself stating that ‘nothing really happened to be honest’ and adding that it was ‘not a good match to watch’. Whilst the United supporters will point to the list of absentees from the match, which included Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs, Anderson and Michael Owen, United looked short of quality in the middle of the park in particular.

Will Wayne's concerns over squad strength prove vindicated? Source: Soccerbuzz

Manchester United still stand atop the Premier League table, but Ferguson himself will know that they haven’t had a particularly impressive campaign thus far. Whilst they have only been beaten once in their 26 matches, they have won only 3 away games, bettered by the likes of Newcastle United and Blackpool and doubled by Roberto Mancini’s noisy neighbours at Eastlands.

Looking at the squad available to Ferguson shows that while they do have a collection of class players, there are doubts around many of the players in the squad. Last week, in the FA Cup, Sir Alex played a team of mainly backup players against Crawley Town. Whilst it must be acknowledged that Crawley were obviously going to be right up for it on their big day out, the performance of these backup players must be a source of worry to the wily old Scot.

Ryan Giggs continues to impress at the ripe old age of 37, and recently signed a contract extension for another year, which must surely be his last. For Ferguson, the continued performances of Giggs must be the source of great relief, given his choices in the absence of Giggs are Bebe and Gabriel Obertan.

Bebe, a summer signing from Vitória de Guimarães, has made only seven appearances so far this season, in which many people were expecting to see the talent that persuaded United to part with over £7 million  for. However, he has proved entirely underwhelming and looks out of sorts. It would be cruel to write him off so early, but the early signs are not encouraging.

The Young Prentender; Is he indeed pretending? Source: Telegraph

For Obertan, the omens look even worse. He joined in the summer of 2009 from the French team Bordeaux for £3 million and whilst his performances have been average, this is surely not good enough for a club widely regarded as one of the biggest in the world, and he seems likely to move on again soon.

The problems in replacing the ‘Golden Generation’ do not end there. Paul Scholes is another mercurial talent who is close to retiring and the central midfielders at Manchester United are perhaps not quite what they should be.

Michael Carrick, not yet 30, joined in the summer of 2006 for over £18million and while he was influential initially, his performances in the last 18 months suggest that he is in real decline. Darron Gibson, a product of the United youth system looks average at best whilst Owen Hargreaves’ crippling injury problems have all but ruined his career in Manchester.



Giggs and Scholes; Irreplaceable? Source: Sky



Anderson has begun to grow into his role in the United midfield, and was rewarded with a new contract recently to reward this, but United really seem to lack a creative player in the middle of the park to dictate play and create chances. Add into the mix the need for a new goalkeeper given the impending retirement of Edwin van der Sar, and we can see the need for investment into the squad.



Ferguson has shown his nous time and again in signing players such as Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Javier Hernandez for bargain prices, and it may be the case that he needs to do it again this summer, in order to stay at the top of the pile.



Ferguson: Challenges ahead. Source: Telegraph

Whether the Glazer family will allow him to spend is another matter, but what is sure is that transfers are needed, not only due to the lack of depth in the squad but also due to the seemingly relentless pursuit of success across the road at Eastlands. Roman Abramovich has also begun to dig into his deep pockets once more, and United cannot take their position for granted.

Sir Alex Ferguson is himself 69 and may well leave his post at the end of next season, bowing out along with Giggs and Scholes perhaps. Whatever happens, the next 18 months seem set to be hugely important – and hugely worrying – times for the fans of Manchester United.

What's Troubling Torres?

As the lights went out upon Craven Cottage late on Monday evening, the two men in the dugouts displayed contrasting emotions. Carlo Ancelotti’s famous raised eyebrow will have risen once more after Petr Cech rescued Chelsea from another embarrassing defeat in their home city.

Looking back to early September this would seem an unlikely scenario, with Chelsea scoring goals for fun and battering opposition seemingly regardless of their skills. At that point very few would have suggested Chelsea needed a striker, nevermind a striker who would set them back a cool £50million. Surely if Ancelotti had thought that reinforcements were needed then he would have made a move in the summer.

Carlo Ancelotti: Troubled

However Chelsea’s role as Premiership holders will surely be lost come mid-May, as they now stand 12 points behind leaders Manchester United, with both games against the Red Devils still to be played in this troubled season, not to mention troublesome games against two of the new breed of Premiership challengers, Manchester City and Tottenham.

Looking at how the season has panned out, it is difficult to pinpoint when things started going downhill for Chelsea, though a likely contender seems to be November 7^th, when the former club of new recruit Fernando Torres, Liverpool, narrowly overcame Chelsea 1-0 at Anfield. Looking at their record since then makes for grim reading; Played 16 Won 5 Drawn 5 Lost 6.

This form, and their lack of goalscoring, discounting the games against Bolton, Sunderland and Aston Villa is precisely what prompted Ancelotti to persuade Roman Abramovich to open his wallet in a manner not seen for some time.

The game against Fulham saw Chelsea draw another blank, even with their new charge at the spearhead of the attack and one must wonder what is occurring at Stamford Bridge, and indeed at their Cobham training ground.

It would be foolish, and perhaps even insulting to criticise Fernando Torres off the back of two games with new colleagues, but he has looked out of sorts for some time now.

Torres looking and feeling Blue

In the 2009-10 campaign with Liverpool, Fernando Torres scored 22 goals in 32 appearances for Liverpool, a very impressive record given the team’s underperformance. However in early April an operation on his troublesome knee ended his league campaign, and this injury appears to have left a cloud hanging over the player ever since.

During Spain’s World Cup winning drive, which Torres impressively fought back to fitness to be a part of, he looked out of sorts, and a player who looked so impressive in Euro 2008, scoring the decisive goal in that final, was dropped for the World Cup final by Vicente del Bosque. It is perhaps a measure of Spain’s quality that they managed to win the World Cup when one of their star players was so clearly off colour.

Torres is a fantastic football player, of that there can be no doubt. His below par performances in the World Cup can be put down to him just returning from injury. Similarly, his poor performances for Liverpool this season may be put down to a lack of motivation and a desire for change. For Fernando Torres that change has now come, and he now plies his trade for a club ‘at the level he is supposed to’ and there can be no more excuses.

Fernando Torres is no doubt a world class striker, and is still only 26 years old, lest we forget, but for Ancelotti and perhaps more tellingly Mr Abramovich himself,