The Berbatov Conundrum

Of the many takeaways from the Goodison game, this question would have been uppermost on quite a few of us fans. Not because of anything that this game alone showed us about Berba, that we suddenly have our doubts about him. It’s more of a gradual process, as Rob has written. It always has been, with Dimitar. He has not been helped by the fact that he’s never been able to put together a string of first-team appearances for us – being kept out either by perennial injuries or United rediscovering themselves in a 4-5-1, leaving no room for the 1 to be Berba

To be sure, his opener for us against Everton was sheer class. There were three people converging on him and it was a ball whipped in at pace from the right. Yet it was almost one smooth motion in which he stopped and rifled the ball into the top corner before Tim Howard could say ‘Berba!’. And then there’s the moment that everyone who is going to leap to his support is going to point to – the beautiful through-ball for Rooney which Wayne, for probably the first time this season, failed to bring under his control and finish it. There is more than one way of looking at this.

The Touch

Sure Berba wouldn’t have let that ball away from him, but would he have had that pace to get in behind the Everton defence if he had been the one who had been played through? I doubt it. In fact, I can picture it in my head – Howard sliding in to the ball as Berba, full of grace as ever, leaps lightly over him like a Russian ballerina performing the Swan Lake at the Bolshoi. Then he would stand there and look at his hands, or the sky, or the crowd, while Rooney would have his head down and be running back full tilt because the wing-back has gone ahead with the ball for Everton. He did the same when Ronaldo did his tantrum of ‘I won’t defend’. But it’s ok for He-Man, the Master of the Universe to do it. He has blistering pace when required, and a lot more tricks with the ball than just a silken touch. If I were Fergie, I wouldn’t want my star striker running around to make up for a ‘classy’ non-runner.

The Vision

This is the funniest argument I’ve heard in favour of Berba. That his passes and vision are simply not read by all the people around him. Let’s put it this way. If there’s 10 people in a team on one page, and 1 person who is not, then it is that person who has to get to the others’ page. This is not Tottenham anymore. Most of United’s moves are built from possession. They barely even take a free kick long, even in the 90th minute. Anyone who has seen enough of their matches can see clear training ground moves emerge clearly, with all lines and arrows and passes appearing a la John Nash and his numbers. And it is usually, patient, possession football. To top it all, this reasoning seems to suggest that at Tottenham he had players who could read his vision and passes. Snigger. Ok.

The Fate

Alongside all of this, the fates have also not been kind to him, all through his stay here. Till last year there was CR7. At the worst, there was the ragged mercenary to act as a super-sub and get us the goals. There were very few occasions when this ‘Fab Four’ were on the pitch together, and of course when they did, they inevitably turned the game for us. But the fact remained, his pecking order was low. Come this season, and most people expected United to go back to their most traditional 4-4-2, with Fletcher growing into the enforcer’s role where Keane had left a hole (rhyme time!). And then, disaster struck as we lost all of our Back 5, then the second back 5, and then some more, right up to the center-back in our Under-18 reserves team. Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but that was the scale of the massacre. In such a situation, United simply couldn’t play a 4-4-2 – not with a back 4 that had Carrick and Fletcher in it. And so there had to be 5 in front of them. We know those games didn’t go well, but there’s no way United could’ve put out two strikers for those games – adventurous or otherwise.

The One

And then of course, the least spoken about argument. What if Berbatov is the sole striker and Rooney does the left-wing sacrifice that he did last season. Seriously, you’re kidding me right? It’s an English League. It’s World Cup year. And he’s England’s biggest goal-scoring hope. He’s going to play on the left for an on-now, off-now striker with a low work rate? Slight.

All said, Berba would probably start against West Ham today. It’s a home game, against a side 18th in the league and we’re still missing Nani and Giggsy in the fire-power department. Last-chance saloon?