THE thinking behind Manchester United’s pursuit of Wayne Rooney is that they need a touchstone player, an individual who can arrive at Old Trafford and raise expectations and standards in all around him just as did Eric Cantona 11 years ago. If that sounds like a tall order for an 18-year-old with only 15 Premiership goals to his name, there was plenty of evidence yesterday to suggest that it does not begin to reflect Sir Alex Ferguson’s desperation as his rebuilding operation continues to founder.
Perhaps it is just as well, from United’s point of view, that Rooney was advised to stay away for fear of inflaming the situation at a ground where emotions, not least among the visiting supporters, were running high. Had the teenager been here, he would have seen his prospective employers frustrated and outfought by the Everton team-mates on whom he has turned his back. If he picks up a newspaper this morning, stopping first to scan the front pages in search of another story of his off-the-field antics, he will see Everton sitting two places above United in the Barclays Premiership.
Ferguson has always held dear the maxim that the championship race is a marathon, rather than a sprint, but the worrying signs are that United are looking distinctly Paula Radcliffe as Arsenal and Chelsea gallop off into the distance. Whereas the two London clubs boast a 100 per cent record, United have won just one of their four matches. An even more glaring illustration of their early-season malaise is that they have scored only three goals, as opposed to Arsenal ‘s 16, and that cannot be attributed to the absence of Ruud van Nistelrooy alone.
For all that this was an impressive show of defiance by Everton, whose “delighted” manager, David Moyes, was entitled to bemoan the referee’s failure to notice a handball by Mikaël Silvestre in the penalty area early in the second half, it was another wretched performance from Ferguson’s team. Devoid of inspiration, they need sorely a player capable of linking midfield and attack, as Rooney does. But should not the greater priority be to find a player who can replace the increasingly injury-prone Roy Keane in the centre of midfield?
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Yesterday, for all their possession, United were never in control of a midfield in which Kléberson, Darren Fletcher and Paul Scholes — three fine passers, but not a ball-winner among them — were outmuscled by Everton’s quintet of Lee Carsley, Leon Osman, Steve Watson, Tim Cahill and Kevin Kilbane. Cahill, making his Premiership debut, and Osman performed well for players so inexperienced at this level, while David Weir and Alan Stubbs, at the other end of the scale, ensured that the defence was not breached.
Moyes, who hopes to augment one of the Premiership’s weakest squads by making at least one new signing before today’s transfer deadline, praised his players after they secured their seventh point in three matches.
“It was a great team performance and I thought we should have had a penalty for the handball,” he said, “but I don’t suppose I’m the first visiting manager to say that.”
The handball by Silvestre followed 55 minutes of mediocrity in which, for all the trickery of Cristiano Ronaldo, the tenacity of Alan Smith and the youthful promise of Jonathan Spector at left back, Everton looked the more likely scorers. The arrivals of Eric Djemba-Djemba and Ryan Giggs at least gave United a more balanced look, but still there was a conspicuous and bewildering lack of urgency. Smith, typically, was an exception, running deep to win the ball from Cahill and striking a right-foot shot against the foot of a post.
In the closing minutes, Nigel Martyn was finally stretched, first by a misdirected header from Stubbs and then by a low shot from Scholes. That, though, was as anxious as it got for Everton, who might even have beaten United for the first time since the 1995 FA Cup Final if they had had the pace to test the home defence on the counter- attack.
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The past three matches have strengthened Moyes’s belief that it is better to have 11 players pulling in the same direction than to have a ten-man cast in support of a temperamental superstar. United, by contrast, are in desperate need of some unpredictable genius, but even that may not be enough to bridge the yawning gap between them and Arsenal.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-3-1-2): T Howard — G Neville, J O’Shea, M Silvestre, J Spector — Kléberson (sub: R Giggs, 64min), D Fletcher (sub: E Djemba-Djemba, 64), P Scholes — C Ronaldo (sub: D Bellion, 82) — A Smith, L Saha. Substitutes not used: R Carroll, P Neville.
EVERTON (4-1-4-1): N Martyn — T Hibbert, D Weir, A Stubbs, A Pistone — L Carsley — L Osman, S Watson, T Cahill (sub: G Naysmith, 70), K Kilbane — M Bent (sub: D Ferguson, 54). Substitutes not used: R Wright, J McFadden, K Campbell. Booked: Osman, Cahill.
Referee: D Gallagher.