In the hour or so prior to kick off in yesterday’s Liverpool v Manchester United showdown, United fans were stunned by the team sheet announced by the Champions. Social networks were overworked with fretting United fans fearing a big defeat to the team they hate to lose to most. Text messages were flying around from both sets of fans; “we could get spanked today” said one United stalwart, a Liverpool fan boasted “we’ll rip that line up apart”. Both sets of fans were way off the mark of course as the game was largely even and ended with the spoils shared. A lot of United fans owed Sir Alex an apology for their pre-match defeatism.

However, reasonably content with a decent point in the bag, I was stunned by the post match reaction. Rather than contrition I saw wide spread criticism of the line up and tactics – most of it from kids who were not even born when Sir Alex first rolled into Old Trafford in 1986. There is a running joke amongst United fans that always references “Sack Fergie, Sell Giggs” to describe fans guilty of knee jerk reactions to United setbacks. The phrase came to mind yesterday as the insults flew at both men.

It seems that computer and video games are so realistic these days that people who play “Championship Manager” or “Football Manager” suddenly know more about the game than one of the greatest managers of all time. They’d have picked Rooney and Hernandez up front and “gone for it”. They wouldn’t have played with “negative tactics” as United did. F365 predictably joined the fun and described United’s line up as “cowardly” which is amongst the more bizarre criticisms for a man who has made a career out of making big calls and doing so fearlessly. Exactly how cowardly is it to take your team away to your bitter rivals and leave out Rooney, Hernandez, Nani, Valencia, Anderson, Carrick, Vidic and with poor old Berbatov not even on the bench? How about giving the talented but inexperienced Jones his first appearance in midfield in the lions den at Anfield? That takes some balls. It also takes a lot of faith in your squad, faith that is clearly not shared amongst all United fans.

The truth is Ferguson’s selection was spot on and his tactics worked almost perfectly and here is why. United were set up to flood the midfield and quieten the crowd (12.45pm kick off time also helped – the atmosphere in these games is never as good). It was clear that reinforcements would be sent on in the second half to find and exploit space with the game stretched. The team selected was more than good enough to keep a Liverpool side I feel will struggle to even make the Europa Cup at bay.

And so it went with a tepid first half resulting in a muted Anfield. Unfortunately unlike the virtual world, in the real world there is no accounting for an experienced player inexplicably abandoning his place in a defensive wall. There is no planning and preparation that can deal with a referee being conned by a flagrant dive that ends up gifting the opposition a goal.

And anyway since when has a point at Anfield been such a bad result? Over the course of the season I am sure this will be seen as a decent point gained.

What of the much lamented line up itself? Well this is where the naysayers need to understand that Sir Alex Ferguson does not let the emotion of a big game dictate his selection for a particular game or lose his focus from managing the season as a whole. The context of the Liverpool game is that players were coming back from International duty, we have what is pretty important Champions League game on Tuesday and then a massive (sorry couldn’t resist!) clash in the Manchester derby next Sunday. The boss tries to shuffle the pack and prepare for all these games and beyond.

It should also be noted that there are a number of factors that go into any manager’s selection. Players may be ill, have personal issues known to only the club but not the outside world or in Wayne Rooney’s case known to all and sundry. Some players may have played longer for their international clubs, may have been on long flights and may simply be short of fitness. For us fans from the outside we take these events as they come but for the clubs and their manager’s these dates are in the calendar and planned long in advance. Then there are the injured players to consider, when they are ready to return, where they can be given half an hour, an entire half or an hour is all meticulously planned in advance and but for unforeseen circumstances Ferguson tends to know who will play when and against which opposition and what the tactics will be well in advance.

If is not by accident that Manchester United are invariably in the mix up when titles are due to be won, it doesn’t just happen that the team gets stronger after the turn of the year. It is a process that is planned, managed and executed by a man that never loses sight of the bigger picture.

This is the art of management that some fail to appreciate, yes we can all pick our teams best eleven for a one off game when all things are well but that luxury rarely presents itself to the modern football manager. No amount of technical wizardry in any computer game can replicate the challenge faced by top flight managers. United fan’s moaning at the team selected on Saturday should remember one thing, if recent history has taught us anything it is that when it comes to managing the season, no one does it better than the great man we have at the helm.

 @Us_Monster