With Javier Hernandez grabbing all the headlines at the moment and Wayne Rooney enjoying a decent return to form, Dimitar Berbatov has been confined to a reduced role on the periphery despite being the Manchester United’s and the Premier League’s top goalscorer. With the Bulgarian overlooked for selection in their recent crucial Champions League knockout fixture against Marseille and in the FA Cup tie against Arsenal, it does beg the question, will Berbatov ever earn the full trust of his manager Sir Alex Ferguson to perform against the most difficult of opponents?
In recent seasons, and to great success it has to be said, Man Utd manager Alex Ferguson has opted for a 4-5-1 formation against his nearest and greatest rivals as well as in important European games. Berbatov has often proved to be the fall guy in such tactical shifts as the Bulgarian does little to shed his flat-track bully status with his lacklustre performances to date when he has been given a chance.
Man Utd’s surprising 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at the beginning of the month cannot be attributed to Berbatov’s presence, for the striker started on the bench, but the crucial change was not in personnel but in tactics and formation, with the Scot switching to a 4-4-2 formation with Hernandez partnering Rooney up front.
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This move not only exposed the frailty and lack of urgency in the Man Utd midfield, but also highlighted what a poor move it was to shift away from the tried and tested 4-5-1 formation in big games such as these. The formation’s success was born out of necessity earlier on during Berbatov’s Man Utd career due to his relative lack of penetration and influence on games of consequence. Ji-Sung Park, so often derided by some, has proved pivotal in making the 4-5-1 formation work in recent seasons and the South Korean is undoubtedly a big-game player; his absence may have forced Ferguson into the unwise formation change against Chelsea and to dire effect.
It is rare for a player to top the league’s goalscoring charts yet not be completely assured of a place in his own side’s starting eleven. Berbatov is undeniably having his finest season in a Man Utd shirt, brought about by his insistence on being in and around the penalty area for longer spells and a deliberate focus and refusal to drop deep to instigate play quite so often.
Everyone knows that Berbatov has the touch of an angel and that he’s capable of producing the sublime out of nothing, but in the big gameshh as Shcteve McClaren aptly named them, he has been found wanting at times and despite his successful season so far he still fails to garner the full faith of Ferguson it would appear.
He boasts a more than respectable return of 41 goals in 91 league games for Man Utd yet in Europe, Berbatov has rather shockingly failed to trouble the scorers for the past two seasons and he has a fairly pitiful record of 4 goals in 20 games overall.
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On the continent, Ferguson often relies on the 4-5-1 formation discussed on the previous page, yet without the magicial Ronaldo or the in form Rooney of last season to make the telling difference, Utd have struggled to excite in Europe this term and they look far from a side capable of winning the competition at present.
Berbatov is presenting his manager with a headache though. His goals in the league are difficult to ignore, even for someone as stubborn as Ferguson. Berbatov was top dog earlier on in the campaign, but with the clinical Hernandez coming to the fore recently and Rooney’s re-emergence beside him, there is a school of thought that Berbatov’s lethargic playing style only serves to prolong Rooney’s insipid displays further on the pitch.
This is of course through no fault of his own; Berbatov has had a great season so far and without him, Man Utd would not be the frontrunners for the title, yet Rooney remains the club’s key man and the system which gets the best out of him remains the system of choice for Ferguson.
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At the moment, the fantastic movement and energy of Hernandez has helped spark Rooney back into life and Berbatov will have to make do with cameo appearances like he had against Bolton – what will force Ferguson into a change of thinking though, is to continue to make telling and crucial contributions to the team like he did against Bolton with his 88th minute winner from the bench.
Until the aforementioned Chelsea game, Ferguson had made changes to 165 consecutive match day line-ups, making a complete and utter mockery of the media’s fascination with Rafa Benitez’s rotation style. However, it appears rotation is the name of the game at Man Utd at the moment and if anything is certain around Old Trafford these days, it is ever-changing make-up of the starting eleven.
The continued stream of goals has made what was once an easy decision to drop him a difficult one, but the secret behind his success has been a subtle reinventing of his game from one that instigates attacks to a player that finishes them off – herein lies his route to big game redemption; the role of the consummate poacher, a tag he’ll have to wrestle from Javier Hernandez first to prevail. Rooney remains bafflingly undroppable despite evidence to the contrary for most of this season, yet while he retains this lofty status, it is up to Berbatov to provide something different in what has turned into an intriguing contest for a first-team slot with signing of the season Hernandez.
Berbatov will get his chance once more in a big game, such is the relative weakness of Utd’s midfield and the comparative strength of their attack; but until Berbatov starts to make a telling impact against these bigger sides, he will not gain the full trust of Ferguson to do so on a consistent basis.
Check out Man United’s representative in the Top TEN solo goals of all time…
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