Solved the Berbatov Conundrum?

Dimitar Berbatov. Love him, hate him, sigh about him, throw your hands up in frustration about him, but you just can’t seem to ignore him. We certainly haven’t, on this blog and I believe we’ve now had enough on the subject that it’s practically a trilogy now. On that note, you can catch Part I here and a sort of a follow-on rebuttal in Part II here.

We came from the back of our historic thrashing of the Rossoneri into the Fulham fixture, which had been pointed out by many as one of the four ‘tough’ games in our run-in. With reason of course, we had been humiliated 3-0 at Craven Cottage, the game I switched off at the 78th minute because I just couldn’t take it anymore. Roy Hodgson has built a side which is somewhat like New Zealand is to cricket – you won’t expect any of them to hold any brilliant individual records, but the sum comes out greater than the parts. And well, in this season where Shitty has beaten Chelshit at the Bridge, any bloody thing could happen.

We finally, finally played what would seem the closest equivalent of our first-choice 4-4-2 for the match. Seeing Rio, Vida, Berba, Nani all start in the same match is like watching Shitty not draw a match – it’s a blue moon event. United and Roon were off the blocks pretty quickly, and kept pulling away from Fulham throughout the duration of the first half. It was like watching a 100-m race with Usain in it. Fletcher was the engine as always, popping up all across the Fulham midfield and then surging ahead whenever we broke with the ball. Carrick has improved unbelievably over the past two seasons, a fact that was evidenced by the calm he brought to the England midfield as well in the recent win over Egypt. There’s another Tottenham import whose value-add to the side has been questioned quite a bit in the past. But nowehere as much, or as frequently, or as frustratedly as the man who followed him to OT from there.

Berba was the definition of ‘man on a mission’ yesterday. He dropeed in deep to collect the ball, exchanged brilliant passes with the midfield – a lovely little give-and-go which put Fletch clean through on goal in the first half comes to mind, he was willing to run back all the way to the half-line (that’s a loooot for him!). Even better, he seems to have got the hang of how Nani, Rooney and Valencia work. They’re not him, and so will not lazily sqivel to beat three defenders, play someone else through and sit and watch. They’re one-touch, on-the-go, constantly moving players. And they like to have the ball moved about quickly. That’s what Berbatov did best yesterday. It’s not about drawing three men on to you and then beating them, though that’s admittedly a very useful skill. It’s about getting the ball to the man in the next advanced position, and him to the next, and so on. That’s how we play, and it seems it has taken Berba all this while to realize it.

It took Roon 31 seconds into the second half to break down the annoying Mr. Schwarzer. This guy and Friedel, they’re the worst goalkeepers we ever face, bloody people keep everything out. Of course, FUlham got by with a little help from the ref who apparently ruled that Kelly’s bear-hug and clamber on Rooney wasn’t worth a penalty. Flashback to our Portsmouth game where Pompey got a penalty from a corner because Vidic apparently ‘pulled’ Piquionne (was it?) back. Really, I think the thing that rankles all of us, cutting across loyalties, is the lack of consistency in the refereeing system in this game. I mean, you wouldn’t get that in any other sport, two exactly similar incidents getting treated completely differently. But then again, maybe that’s one of the aspects of the game itself – that heart in mouth moment where the opposing attacker goes down in your box and you intently stare at the referee’s hands for the next few seconds. Good moments, those.

Once we were 1-0 up, we really were only going to batter Fulham down till the next one came. And it was only appropriate that it came from the man on a mission. We’ve seen him pluck balls out of thin air before, and when he did that to Carrick’s raking diagonal, he was still on the right byline with two Fulham players on him. Then came the moment of shock and awe! Our very own Dimitar Berbatov tapped the ball between the two men, out-accelerated both of them and still had enough time to look up and square the ball perfectly for Rooney’s 32nd of the season (thirty fricckin second, damn!). As the MoTD commentator put it ‘You didn’t know Berbatov could accelerate like that did you?’ No siree, I didn’t. I doubt if even he did. But overall, it’s good to know he can.

5 minutes later, Berba helped himself to one as well, after missing about three chances from crosses from our excellent wingers on the night – Nani, Valencia and Park. 10th of the season for him as he catches up with Own Goals on our highest scorers tally. But more importantly, a perfect sign-off for a game which has come closest as any in all that he has played in silencing all the Berba-beaters. He could’ve put in those three he missed through the course of the game and we would’ve hammered Fulham. On the same note though, he could’ve chosen not to make that second goal happen and we would’ve held on to a frayed 1-0 as well. It swings both ways, but last night, I think we should let it swing well in his favour.

This post has not been about Wazza. It is obvious that without him, we would’ve struggled for goals again. But that’s been obvious for eons now and there’s no point in bringing it up again. This one, is for our laidback Bulgarian. You could genuinely see his frustration at missing the first couple of headers he got, a frustration that was aimed at the self rather than those around him. That is a good sign, a sign that shows he has to meet the rest of the team halfway on this whole understanding issue. And then they can all live happily ever after.