24 September 2001

THE NEW SIGNINGS, AND THEIR IMPACT SO FAR..

By United Views Columnist - Roy Walker

United had one of their busiest close seasons in our history. So many players had been linked with us in the past but yet we had never managed to secure any of their signatures. Players such as Zidane, Rivaldo, Batistuta, Thuram etc had always eluded before. This time was different, not only did we finally bring Ruud Van Nistelrooy to the club but also another world class player in Juan Sebastian Veron. These signings were a welcome sign to all reds that United meant business this season and that Ferguson is going all out for European glory in his last campaign. The prospect of these new players mixing in with the likes of Becks, Keane, Stam and Co was mouth-watering, all we wanted was for the season to start.

So new faces also brought new options for Ferguson, a 4-4-1-1 formation was now available with Scholes playing just behind Van Nistelrooy and a midfield of Giggs, Keane, Veron and Beckham. The rest of the premiership were in awe of our formidable squad. There were all sorts of predictions flying around such as the biggest one horse race ever, United will score 7 at least 5 times, there will be two teams..and so on. This new style of formation is relatively new to united, our success has been with the use of two strikers and two wingers so know one really knew how the players were going to respond. New faces shake any side up, but new faces and new style of play can shake things up even more.

We saw our first real glimpse of the new set up against Celtic for Giggsys testimonial. I suppose you cant really take that much too seriously in a testimonial match, after all, the Jocks were treating it like a European cup final and it wasn’t anywhere near as important for our boys, apart from Giggsy and his 1 million. However we conceded 4 but it looked good for the new boys, both scored and both played well, Veron more so when Keane went off. The next test was against the scousers. Again, this was very similar to the Celtic match as in they and their fans were treating the game like Celtic treated the testimonial, like a European cup final. Alright they beat us, again, but we played well and that Westerveld had the game of his life ( where is he now though, tut tut. )

Fulham was another test, I was looking forward to the Fulham game, a chance to put that Al Fayed in his place and show them who they are dealing with now. Not the case, our defence was exposed frequently and again the new system wasn't quite coming together. We still won the game but Fulham seemed to have took more from the game than us. Blackburn was another, we should've had that one won by half time but never mind. Villa was the same but for some big Danish guy, cheers Pete. Newcastle was just one of those games, mistakes, goals, end to end. I'm not going to go through every match, but now with the arrival of Blanc we have shaken the defence up again because he needs time to adjust and whether he is the answer to the loss of Stam is another thing, we shall see. Our team is getting criticised by most parts of the media but are still winning and have lost only once, unlike ‘mighty’ Liverpool who lost twice already.

If you want to contact Roy click here..