Forward Thinking The Secret To O.G's Success

A lot’s been made in recent weeks about our players apparent
inability to score goals; choosing to rely on the opposition to finish the job
instead. Apart from the obvious fact that that’s not entirely true – with
Scholes, Park, Carrick, Berbatov and of course Rooney all contributing to the
16 goals we’ve scored in our last 5 games – is o.g hitting top form and scoring
5 in three games for United really something to be ridiculed? Or is it instead a direct result of our fine attacking form?

Giggs and Rooney celebrate o.g's 10th goal of the season against Villa

As much as I defiantly attach the ‘realist’ tag to my fan
status, even I can’t deny our form of late has been shockingly good. The Hull
game on the 23rd January, where we didn’t play particularly well regardless of what the handsome
4-0 score-line implies, has seemed to spark a sort of mini-revival. At times
this season, I have rued Ferguson’s
(or the Glazer’s) decision to insufficiently replace Ronaldo as well as his
constant insistence of wastefully sticking Rooney up-front on his own. Yet as I
said, even this United fan with an overtly pragmatic and half glass empty
attitude has to admit that it seems to be finally coming together.

The last few weeks have seen us hit our best form of the
season; with the defining moments coming two weeks ago, firstly at home to City
in the Carling Cup and then at the Emirates.

As I mentioned, the Hull
game before the Arsenal match can hardly be revered in the same way. It was an
odd one for the way we were narrowly ahead with only 10 minutes remaining, yet
Rooney’s 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th of the game created
the statistical impression that we completely cruised it. What was evident
however was the way we so effortlessly upped the tempo and shot into gear when
we were required to. It was also the ‘real debut’, as so many fans and writers
have dubbed it, of Nani.

Ferguson has
constantly kept faith in the winger, regardless of United fans tiresome attitude
towards him. By playing him on the right against Hull,
it revealed a new dimension to his game; a freedom to roam, cut inside and go
wide that a certain countryman of his also enjoyed at United. Since then, he
has started all four games – forcing the reliable Valencia to sit on the bench
for three of those – and you could argue, it has directly ignited our most successful
and tactically familiar spell of the season.

By applying the width that is offered by Valencia along with an
additional attacking option as he is able to distribute possession across the park,
we have seen Rooney hit the form of his life (7 in 5). The once isolated centre
forward has now become part of a three-man attack; one that gives him support from
behind, from wide positions and even direct support alongside him.

However as I noted at the start, it’s not only Wayne (or
Nani) that has benefited from this change in approach and reaffirmation of our
winning mentality. Where as it might be easy to rule the own-goals we have
scored recently as ‘lucky’, the reality is that the constant pressure and
multi-direction of our attack makes it almost impossible for teams to handle
us. We perilously attacked City for pretty much the entire 90 minutes in the
cup, and against Arsenal and Portsmouth
we killed the game off with shorter, more profound attacking spells. This sort
of pressure that is not necessarily always present in the Valencia-friendly 4-4-2 can often be more sporadic, and
in turn less successful.

It seems ironic that I’m praising the recent form of Nani
and the 4-3-3 seeing as now
it looks like we might be forced to revert back to the old. Nani’s
red-card has ruled him out of our next 3 domestic games (including the Carling
Cup final) and Giggs, who has continuously provided creativity on the left this
season, is also out for the next few weeks. That will naturally pave the way
back in for Valencia, as well as Park, who both provide width and defensive
back-up. However, as good as Nani has been performing recently, I hardly think
we’ll crumble due to his absence.

The attitude towards winning and, most impressively, killing
teams off is certainly there. It has been re-established and so the
blistering pace and general fine form of Valencia
will continue to initiate this approach. As long as Rooney has that support, as
long as Fletcher and Carrick continue dominating and controlling the midfield as they have done so confidently and as long as the United pressure is formidably applied, we will see a lot
more goals, especially for o.g, as teams simply can't handle the United resilience.