After let Johnsen and Irwin left, it seems finally Fergie has made up his mind to actively do something about our defence. But for a fan who have cried for improving the defence for more than two years, I only want to ask Fergie one thing: Why it takes so long for you!
The defence is the most long-lived, fundamental problems of us for some time. The trace of the problem can be tracked back to the matches against Real in the CL in 2000, where our defence was sliced like beard at home. That's the time some of the more long-sighted fans start to cry to improve our defence. The problem has became even more serious in 00-01 season, when our defence was like a mess in Europe, particularly in away matches (most of them when Stam was not playing). But even after that seaason, Fergie still decided to ignore it and use 50m on offensive players instead. Finally, in this horrible season of 01-02, the defence completely went out of order. We were once the second worst defence in PL, just better than Lecister City. We lost the leauge even before Chirstmas.
There are different opinions from fans. Some fans natively think that it didn't matter how is our defence as long as we keep scoring more than our opponents. Some fans also agreed to strengthen the defence after a defeat due to defending mistake, but they quickly forgot it after a run of wins (typically against some average PL opponents) and said "Give them some time... may be our defence is not that bad....". Few are those who maintain that we need to improve our defence in every moments througout these two years.
I don't blame any idea from the fans. We are not tactical experts anyway. But for manager, surely he should have done something earlier? Why it takes us to lost every trophics and got the lowest league position since PL started does he finally decide to look into the defence problem? Is it because he is a believer of Brazil's all-out attack football of 60's? Because he is indeed not so wise in defence tactic? Because he just didn't know how to judge whether a defender is good enough? Or what's else the reason? I'm not angry, just curious. I'm really curious what Fergie was thinking in his head when he saw the defence failing us time after time, season after season.
The defence is the most long-lived, fundamental problems of us for some time. The trace of the problem can be tracked back to the matches against Real in the CL in 2000, where our defence was sliced like beard at home. That's the time some of the more long-sighted fans start to cry to improve our defence. The problem has became even more serious in 00-01 season, when our defence was like a mess in Europe, particularly in away matches (most of them when Stam was not playing). But even after that seaason, Fergie still decided to ignore it and use 50m on offensive players instead. Finally, in this horrible season of 01-02, the defence completely went out of order. We were once the second worst defence in PL, just better than Lecister City. We lost the leauge even before Chirstmas.
There are different opinions from fans. Some fans natively think that it didn't matter how is our defence as long as we keep scoring more than our opponents. Some fans also agreed to strengthen the defence after a defeat due to defending mistake, but they quickly forgot it after a run of wins (typically against some average PL opponents) and said "Give them some time... may be our defence is not that bad....". Few are those who maintain that we need to improve our defence in every moments througout these two years.
I don't blame any idea from the fans. We are not tactical experts anyway. But for manager, surely he should have done something earlier? Why it takes us to lost every trophics and got the lowest league position since PL started does he finally decide to look into the defence problem? Is it because he is a believer of Brazil's all-out attack football of 60's? Because he is indeed not so wise in defence tactic? Because he just didn't know how to judge whether a defender is good enough? Or what's else the reason? I'm not angry, just curious. I'm really curious what Fergie was thinking in his head when he saw the defence failing us time after time, season after season.
) . A team is not fragmented parts but a unit which has a common objective. We defend as unit and attack as unit. This season we were less of a team then in previous seasons.