It was the far from Manchester United’s best performance at Old Trafford on Tuesday night when they defeated Olympique Marseille 2-1 on aggregate to advance to the fifth quarter final in a row in Europe’s top competition.
Vintage United it wasn’t, but it was still the clinical performance we have come to expect from Sir Alex’s chargers on a night where ‘Chicharito’ reigned supreme under lights.
Preferred for a second big game in three days over top-scorer Dimitar Berbatov; Javier Hernandez was ultimately the savior for United on the night netting both goals, yet there was so much more to like about his performance that his two predatory strikes.
A willingness to run down defenders, chase them down and never give them a second on the ball.
A livewire across the back four that’s more than happy to sit on the last man, lose his marker and find himself in poaching positions within the penalty area.
These are the traits of a world class striker and while time will tell as to how good the “little pea” can be, there is a real chance that he could be labeled as “Bargain of the season” come May.
United boss Ferguson would have been laughing himself silly having seen rivals Chelsea and Liverpool splash enormous amounts of money. Currently one is pleading for his chairman to buy him a goal, while the other has hardly been on the pitch, raw and generally unproven in top-flight football.
Hernandez though, only possessed a 7 million pound price tag from Chivas and Ferguson himself has been quoted to be surprised by how quickly the little Mexican has progressed in English football.
His debut season may have only yielded 17 starts, but 16 goals is a very healthy return and with five in his last five plus a rejuvenated Wayne Rooney behind him, United could possibly be finding form at the right time of the season.
Rooney himself has had an indifferent campaign but the last two games have shown he is close to showing something of his best form, while the ageless Ryan Giggs and the returning Antonio Valencia both made contributions to put a smile on faces around the world that wear the red of Manchester.
But questions will be asked regarding the future of Berbatov who seems to be frozen out – perhaps rightly so given his inability to score in Europe since 2008.
There was a concern defensively though with the shaky Wes Brown and the inexperienced Chris Smalling centrally paired at the back. Brown continues to look flimsy and unfit while Smalling struggled to maintain his composure, giving away possession on several occasions.
In fairness most teams would struggle without Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, but that won’t stop Kevin Davies licking his lips when a physical Bolton side takes on United this weekend.
The wavering defence alone always seemed to keep Marseille in the contest with the home side knowing they were vulnerable to the away goals rule, having drawn 0-0 at the Velodrome a few weeks back.
It was therefore a far from a comfortable night of football and to Marseille’s credit, they gave a more than admirable performance and could have gone through themselves had they oozed the same class at the pointy end that United did.
Andre Pierre Gignac should have equalised while Soulemayne Diawara and Gabriel Heinze also wasted chances to score earlier in the contest before Wes Brown put in his own net with eight to play. Though it ultimately proved to be just a warning and even as a non-supporter of either side you could sense a feeling of relief when the final whistle blew.
Didier Deschamps and Lucho Gonzalez commented pre-match that the same “panache” and “aura” associated with a Manchester United team wasn’t there anymore, despite them still being on course for a treble.
That performance last night suggested that perhaps there’s some merit to that, yet it’s the same knack that’s seen them through so well over the years which has been to pick up the result without playing your best football.
Ultimately, that itself is the characteristic of a champion side.
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