In a year when Manchester United was touted to win the treble (Premiership, Champions League, FA Cup), a “single” doesn’t seem like enough.


With so much hype and speculation building as the season wore on, it feels like a let down to consider Man United only won one title.

Overconfidence, fatigue, injuries, and especially poor coaching led to lackluster performances and losses down the stretch and in the big games versus AC Milan in the Campions League, and Chelsea in FA Cup Final.

Overconfidence
United only made the mistake of overconfidence in one game and it caused their exit from the Champions League. They came into Milan riding the high of their first leg win. Expecting that AC Milan would continue to play the same way they did in the second half of that game, Manchester was surprised to find that AC Milan came to play.

Injuries
Let’s consider those that could not play due to injury: Gary Neville – next to Nemanja Vidic, United’s smartest back and a great providor down field, Luis Saha – a much better option than Smith as a strike partner for Rooney, Ji Sung Park – yet another “better option” either in the midfield or as striker.

Consider the “walking wounded” – although, at this stage of the season, there isn’t anyone that can claim complete fitness. Vidic and Rio Ferdinand were just back from injury versus AC Milan – as well as Patrice Evra (although Ferguson opted not to use him for whatever reason)

Chelsea also had injury issues at the end of the season, but they had more depth. And in reality, sitting Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko probably improved Chelsea. In addition, Chelsea arguably has a better manager that used the available talent to its fullest possible extent.

Poor Coaching
By contrast, instead of going about business as usual (attack, attack, attack), Sir Alex Ferguson opted for under-confident and conservative play in a 4-5-1 formation. Any football / soccer fan will tell you that this formation tells the other team from the beginning that you intend to defend above attack. I love defensive struggles, but expecting any striker to go it alone is asking a lot. I know a lot of my readers are American’s that have recently learned to love soccer, so to liken it to something that will make it more understandable: the 4-5-1 alignment is like the “Prevent Defense” in American Football. The play is muted, and the team is basically just trying not to make a mistake.

It is my opinion that you always need at least a pair of strikers to be truly effective. Even if one of the forwards is “second rate”, he still has to be accounted for by the defense and smart runs can open up gaps. Wayne Rooney is not one to score a lot with his back to goal, he is most effective when he is running at the goal. With no support up front, Rooney typically had his back to goal and wasn’t effective — his bright flashes came when we was moving forward. For the better part of the match, the nearest United player was 15-25 yards behind Rooney.

Sitting Patrice Evra was a grave mistake. All season he has proven that he is the better left back. His sparkling ball handling and great footwork has made him a big part of the offense. Without someone like Evra feeding Cristiano Ronaldo, his attack suffered. In hindsight, it appears that the start was given to Gabriel Heinze in recognition of his service to the club (see Gabby Makes a REAL Move).

Conclusion
Now having laid out the reasons for the fall off at the end of the season, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that winning the Premiership is by far the better of the treble competitions to win. While you can always expect more from your team, the fact that they brought home the “biggie” gives us something to be happy about. Still, one more would have been nice.