Is Sir Alex getting worried?

One bright spark

Competitive

His first team is still competitive in the race for the Premier League title although Chelsea are looking good for that. They have lost to Chelsea and Liverpool and been somewhat fortunate to beat Arsenal and Manchester City. Whilst they are clearly still in the top two or three, they do not seem to have compensated for the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo.

In Europe, United have been less than impressive despite qualifying with games to spare. They have looked vulnerable at the back and less decisive in front of goal than they have been for a long time.

Shadow

At the back, Nemanja Vidic looks like a pale shadow of the player from the last couple of seasons. He has the look of a man who is unsettled in Manchester and perhaps more importantly, a man whose wife is unsettled. The rumours concerning his desire to leave in the summer may well be true.

Rio Ferdinand has not become a bad player over night. It is obvious that he was playing with an injury that was probably such that he should not have been playing at all. It is suggested that he will be back before Christmas, but with a chronic lower back problem, how can anyone be sure that he will be really fit?

Enigma

Up front United have the enigma that is Dimitar Berbatov. There is certainly no question about his ability but there are so many other questions about him. Sir Alex obviously has his doubts as Berbatov is often left out of the big games.

The wide areas are also a concern. Ryan Giggs is still a quality player but he surely can’t go on much longer. Valencia has made a steady start to his United career but Cristiano Ronaldo he isn’t. Nani is not good enough and I remain to be convinced by Park. Obertan looks promising, but he is probably not ready yet.

Youthful

Sir Alex fielded a youthful side in the Champions League game against Besiktas on Wednesday which gave him a chance to look at how strong the depth of the squad is. Despite the 1-0 defeat, Fergie declared himself reasonably satisfied.

“They’re young and you expect them to make mistakes. It was a strong showing in terms of the flow of the game. I think we were a bit anxious but it’s not a bad thing. We’ve shown some really good things tonight. That’s encouraging but at the end of the day we just didn’t get the result we needed.”

I have to say that I must have been watching a different game to the one that the United boss saw. Besiktas keeper Rustu was forced into making two excellent saves in the closing stages, but had he touched the ball before that?

United probably should have had a penalty when Patrice Evra was brought down in the area near the end but Fergie was clutching at straws to moan about that.

“It’s a penalty kick. That’s two games in a row they have denied us stonewall penalties but what can you do about it?”

What I saw in the game was Ben Foster having nothing to do, Gary Neville looking his age, Vidic looking fed-up, Wes Brown doing OK, Rafael looking out of position, Obertan looking promising, Gibson looking out of his depth, Anderson looking totally ineffective, Park running a lot and achieving nothing, Wellbeck looking disappointing and Macheda looking promising.

Promising

The only plus points were Obertan and Macheda looking promising, which we all knew already.

I do feel that United’s strength in depth is nowhere near as strong or deep as it has been in the past. The first eleven is not as strong either. If United are going to be serious challengers in the big two competitions this season then Sir Alex Ferguson will have to surpass anything he has achieved before.