English Premier League - Part 1: Conclusions from Manchester United versus Newcastle United
Both the United teams took on each other in their first match of the English Premier League season on Monday night. The match which ended in a three nil win for the United from Manchester but did not give a lot of signs as to how Newcastle or Manchester United’s seasons will go on for the rest of the league season.
Something that was quite apparent was the difference in quality between the runners up of the last league season and the newly promoted Newcastle United. Not only did Newcastle look woeful in attack, they did not manage to contain Manchester United, who are known as notoriously bad starters to the league season. Newcastle’s highlight of the match was their striker Andy Carroll; the tall centre forward looked threatening even when he was competing against the equally physical Nemanja Vidic.
The magpie’s manager came out after the match and said that the best thing about the match was that Newcastle players left Old Trafford with their heads held up high rather than dejected in shame due to the defeat they had conceded. Nevertheless on a night which was quite uneventful, Manchester United never really moved out of their second gear as they easily dealt with anything that Newcastle threw at them and replied as well, by scoring three goals. The first of the three was scored by Berbatov, the second came from Darren Fletcher and the third was added by the substitute Ryan Giggs.
Ferguson started his side with Nemanja Vidic as captain, which was a great sign of trust in the centre back who was considered a Real Madrid target in the currently open summer transfer window. However, the Serbian international defender signed a new contract with Manchester United, which puts him on a higher wage package. Something that Vidic had originally demanded.
Sir Alex also didn’t mess about with his approach to the match; he started with Patrice Evra, Wayne Rooney, Berbatov, Scholes, Fletcher and Nani. These mentioned players are the backbone of United squad and any thoughts of resting them before the season enters its peak were rubbished by the Scotsman. All the post match praise was lavished on Paul Scholes, United 35-year old midfielder. If he continues these performances on regular basis, Scholes can very well be a contender for the English League’s player of the year. But will he?
Scholes is thirty five right now and weirder things have happened in the English Premier League. Last April, Ryan Giggs was given the player of the year award despite having only started twelve league games for Manchester United out of a total of thirty eight. In the twilight of his career, Giggs did perform remarkably well for the red devils but if common sense had prevailed there were other candidates, who were far more deserving than the aging Welshman.
A lot of football pundits have come out after United’s clash with Newcastle with the statement that Scholes is the best midfielder in the English Premier League. But this surely can’t be true.
What makes Scholes so effective is the way his club manager uses him. He is given rest for most of Manchester United’s league matches. If best players were decided by just taking into account the latest game that they featured in then yes, Scholes might be that good but that is not how things work.
Best players are decided over a season or a run of seasons, their consistent performances make them who they are. Scholes on the other hand only started thirty eight league games out of a total of seventy six in the past two English Premier League seasons. A point that should be conceded here is that Scholes does look a world beater when he plays for Manchester United.
It would be foolish to argue that Scholes was not at his best against Newcastle in United’s opening match of the season because he completed an astonishing number of 76 passes out of the 85 that he attempted to make. His ball retention capabilities and passing range are quite marvellous but then again he rarely operates in a four man midfield against top quality opposition.
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