Quite rightly, most of the praise today will be for Javier Hernandez, the £7 million Mexican. The 22 year old scored the winning goal for Manchester United against Valencia in the Champions League last night with just five minutes to go.
That goal, his first for the club, clinched a vital victory and put United top of the group, ahead of Glasgow Rangers, themselves 1-0 winners, albeit against decidedly weaker opposition in Turkish side Bursaspor.
You cannot discount the impact that Rio Ferdinand’s return to the defence had, however. In the face of Valencia’s impressive attacking line up of Soldado and Mata United’s defence stood firm where they would, on recent evidence, have crumbled without the England defender.
United were more defensive than you would expect due to the loss of Scholes, Giggs, Rooney or Valencia. Sir Alex Ferguson chose to field a three-man central midfield of Fletcher, Carrick and Anderson in order to snuff out the attacking threat of the Spaniards and it worked.
Ferdinand’s return clearly boosted the confidence of Vidic as they reformed their partnership seemingly effortlessly, while the choice of Raphael at right back over O’Shea – who worries the hell out of me almost every time he plays – was clearly the right choice.
The solidity at the back allowed United’s weakened attack (no remember) to perform much better than might have been imagined. It wasn’t all Valencia and United did have attacks of their own.
Berbatov, playing alone up front, did struggle to make any real headway yet still worried Cesar in the Valencia goal with a long range effort that flashed just wide of the keeper’s left hand post.
It was the inclusion of first Hernandez and then Macheda that swung the tie in Manchester United’s favour though. It had been Valencia looking the most likely to snatch a victory but Hernandez collected from Macheda and hit home a left foot shot into the corner.
Ferguson described it thusly:
“The way he took his chance, it was like shelling peas. It was so natural to him.”
Interesting way to put it, I thought, but true nonetheless. More pleasing for me were his comments on Ferdinand:
“You’ve got to give us credit for the way we defended. They’re not top of the Spanish league for nothing. Rio needed a game like that. He has the experience, which was vital and the ability to keep the ball, which is important. His experienced helped us. There is no question about that. For his first real game in a long time we are very pleased with that. He has not played for five months. He had games against Rangers and Scunthorpe, but this was a real game.”
Spot on. Hernandez has the headlines, but he has the returning Rio to thank for them.
