THE PREM ERA 13ALEX FERGUSON
quarter-final in 2000, Ferguson opted to
break up the treble-winning side and to
add midfield strength by bringing inJuan
Sebastian Veron and using Paul Scholes
to link the midfield to a lone forward.
The transition was rocky, but the
ultimate success of Ferguson’s policy
came with the quasi striker-less system
that won United the Champions League
in 2008, with Wayne Rooney and Carlos
Tevez both dropping deep, leaving a
vacuum that Cristiano Ronaldo, cutting
in from the flank, could exploit.
With Ronaldo’s departure to Real
Madrid, there has been a step back from
theavant-garde, and United, certainly in
Europe, now play something that would
resemble their 4-4-2 of the1990s if it
were not for Rooney, whose energy and
desire to track back effectively gives
them an extra midfielder.Certainly among forwards, Rooney
is probably the most complete player
England has produced and as such is
key to this phase of United’s evolution.
Lobanovskyi, presumably, would
approve. The path that underlay
his dialectical thinking was
always towards universality.Manchester United1v0Arsenal - 29.04.09 Champions League semi-final first leg Manchester United 2 v1 Chelsea - 06.04.11 Champions League quarter-final second legFluid...Tevez and Rooney’s movement created space for Ronaldo to exploit from the flanks Helping hand...Rooney could drop deeper to prevent the midfield from being overrun