Manchester United breezed past ‘poor’ Bolton Wanderers last afternoon and in the process leveled points with league leaders Manchester City, who will visit Wigan on Monday. Bolton who was already languishing in the relegation zone suffered another routine defeat, while the victory of Blackburn Rovers over Fulham further compounded their misery.
United were brilliant from the onset. The wing play of Nani and Valencia created lots of space for the Man- United strikers to exploit. Special mention should go to the Ecuadorian whose pace troubled the full backs of Wigan throughout the match. His menacing pace down the flanks added with powerful crosses into the box kept Wigan defense gasping for breath. Club captain Patrice Evra hailed the winger’s impact by saying “I think he ate a motor, He was unbelievable”.
The fairy tale return of Paul Scholes into the Man-Utd squad reached another height yesterday, in terms of football romanticism, as the 37-year-old midfielder scored the opener that was crucial for more than one reason. First, his 70 minutes stay on the pitch was marked with sharp, incisive passing and distribution. The midfielder’s performance quashed the growing skepticism within the press that his inclusion was more of a desperate attempt from Sir Alex Ferguson. Moreover, it silenced everyone who raised doubts about his fitness level. Further, the timing of the goal was critical. Just before the half time the Red Devils took the lead which in a way smashed the morals of the visitors. United created relentless pressures in the Bolton goal mouth, but somehow their defense thwarted all the dangers keeping the score line stalemate. Adam Bogdan was the star of the show. He saved Wayne Rooney’s penalty in the first half and it was his heroics that kept the score line to 3-0; it could have been plenty.
Michael Carrick was showing his old spark for some time now; yesterday he was magnificent too. He was further galvanized by the return of the veteran beside him, produced some stunning through passes and long range balls. The most eye-catching aspect about his game was he kept the game simple and went for the killer pass only when he needed to shows that Carrick has been playing with some sort of confidence. Getting a goal from a long range effort wouldn’t do any harm to ‘that’ confidence either. Few days ago Man-Utd midfield looked dilapidated. The injuries didn’t help though. The return of Scholes (another master tactics from Ferguson) and Carrick’s good form has been a boon for the Red Devils. When Tom Cleverly will return, the midfield can only sparkle.
Ferguson has already stated that he will not buy any player in the January transfer window as the price gets unrealistically inflated. In such case, Scholes-Carrick-Anderson has to play a major role as Fletcher’s injury is a terrible blow to the club, Cleverly’s injury situation is unclear and the young brigade of Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison are not yet ‘ready’ to step up though they are ‘good enough’ for Manchester United. There is a subtle difference between being ‘good enough’ and a ‘readymade package’.
Finally what to say about Bolton? Critics like Hansen on BBC Match of the Day said that Owen Coyle shouldn’t be judged on the basis of the early disappointments simply because of the tough fixtures they’ve got. Many opined that he will turn the tide and will the take club back to a healthy position. But things haven’t improved since then. The club is bereft of confidence and currently craving for points which could take them outside the suffocating boundary of relegation zone.
But, look at the fixtures they have got till the crucial March – Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and away to Norwich. The question is – from where the points will come? Is sacking Owen Coyle a solution? Probably not. The club is already losing their key player Gary Cahill to Chelsea and the problem of debt only ensures that Owen Coyle has limited resources at his disposal.
This is perhaps called Irony of Football. Before the season kicked off almost every journalist were ready to put their money on for Newcastle for a sure-shot relegation candidate and Bolton within top ten. ‘Modernism’ rather ‘post-Modernism’ has given the concept of ‘role-reversal’. In this case can it be called an ‘ironic-role-reversal’?