Sean wrote:If you look at United teams from Fergies first four years in charge ('86 to '90), apart from from Jesper Olsen their wing options were limited. They were fortunate to win the F.A. Cup in 1990 and Fergie was lucky to have kept his job. Then, I remember in 1991 Fergie started playing Lee Sharpe on the left wing. He was 17 years of age and on fire as United won the European Cup Winners Cup. I reckon Fergie decided around this time that his teams would be built with an attacking philosophy.
At the beginning of the 91/92 season he started playing Andrei Kanchelskis on the right wing with Sharpe or Giggs on the left. It worked brilliantly. They should have won the league but were pipped by Leeds. The following year they made no mistake and haven't looked back since. Since discovering the winning formula Fergie has never deviated from the template of attacking football. Except for Giggs the ingredients have changed. Rooney is his new Mark Hughes, Vidic the new Bruce, Ferdinand the new Pallister.
Fergie does not over analyse the opposition. He simply sends his team out with a licence to express themselves and ultimately to outscore the opposition. Sure, he has often got caught out by the better teams in Europe but thats another debate. In the premiership the Fergie template works almost every time. Football should be a simple game. Every United player always knows exactly what his role is when he runs out onto the pitch, simply because his role remains the same every week. At Liverpool, we change personnel and formation so much it only succeeds in breeding confusion.
Good post, and a good reminder of where we're lacking. Our wings are still f*cked.
For years we've had square pegs into round holes: Diouf, Cisse, Riise, Aurelio, Garcia, Babel and Benayoun as wingers, Traore, Diao and Arbeloa at centre back for example, and even if you've only got one player playing out of position, it's massively damaging to your side.
We've often had Babel and Benayoun on the wings this season, and you just can't do that and expect to compete with the teams above us. They're both fine players, but Babel's clearly a striker, and Benayoun's clearly more of a creative link man between midfield and attack. I think we've really missed Pennant this season, but it's not like he's the best crosser, and it's not as if the left's hunky-dory either.
With the central midfielders that we have, you just have to hope that Rafa gets this sorted before next season. In theory you look at us with a fit Kewell on the left and a fit Pennant on the right and we've got a good attacking side. But then look at Man U and see how many goals a season they're getting from Ronaldo, Giggs, not to mention the emerging back-up players like Nani. Even if we have our first choice line-up available we're still far from the biggest attacking threat throughout the side.
over the years, I have a Croat mate who thinks we are really funny because we bought Biscan, in fact when I look back all the lads from exchange were laughing becuase we had bought somebody 
