Phil Jones

Following a great week for Manchester United, the Can They Score podcast is back to analyse our performances against Everton and Real Madrid with the help of our talented guests. Looking back at our 2-o win at Old Trafford and 1-1 draw at the Bernabeau, we talk about the importance of Phil Jones, maturity of Rafael da Silva, ability of David De Gea, touch of RvP and the immortality of Ryan Giggs. We also pick our players of week, do a red’s recall on Gabriel Heinze and preview our FA Cup match against Reading. Joining me in the studio is Adam, Frenchy and Tom.

Twelve points. Not since May 2001 has the gap between the Premiership leaders and their nearest challengers been so gaping. Manchester United have garnered the highest points tally (65) after 26 games than any other outfit in the Premiership era.

Yet this is a side which receives very little love from the media. Every journalist or pundit stresses to clarify that this is far from a vintage Manchester United side. They’re not blowing teams away every week and their level of performance is far from spectacular. They will go out of the Champions League to Real Madrid and any domestic success will be as a result of the perceived low standard of the competition.

Now, I’m old enough to remember back to May last year. Manchester United ‘blew it’ in ‘the most exciting title race ever’. Manchester City had a seemingly endless chequebook, and by all accounts had a far superior starting eleven and greater strength in depth. Radio phone-in’s across the land and internet football forums were gleeful that not only were United no longer the biggest club in the world, but they weren’t even going to be the biggest in their own city. Then there was Chelsea – European champions and ready to launch a fresh assault on the Manchester dominance.

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Football fans are fickle. They always have been, and always will be. It isn’t hard to find examples but the debut season of Phil Jones makes a pretty good case study.

Expectations following his signing were moderate; a learning season awaited as understudy to the indestructible partnership of Vidic and Ferdinand. As so often happens, circumstances ripped up the best laid plans and Jones became a mainstay of the first eleven. Early swashbuckling performances fuelled a hype unlike any I have experienced as a United  supporter; ‘future captain’, ‘best English player of his generation’ and a multitude of twitter in-jokes lauding his invincibility.

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After recently signing a new four-year deal which will keep him at Old Trafford until the end of the 2015/16 season, the time has come for Rafael Da Silva to step up and make the right back spot his own during the 2012/13 season.

At 21 years of age, Rafael has made 90 appearances already for the Red Devils and will be looking to improve on his average of 22.5 games a season with a sustained run in the team, if he can stay fit and convince Sir Alex that he is a better option than both Phil Jones and Chris Smalling once he returns from the Olympics.

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As the 2012 European Championship kicks off this evening, here is a quick check on the 7 Manchester United players called up for their respective countries and an analysis on what impact they may have during the competition.

An injury to Thomas Sorensen the day before the final squad was due to be announced has left Morten Olsen without his first choice goalkeeper.  Kasper Schmeichel was drafted into the squad, leaving Stephan Anderson and Anders Lindegaard the front runners to start in goal versus the Netherlands on Saturday.

Anderson has been given the number 1 shirt and played the full 90 minutes in Denmark’s last pre-tournament friendly, a 2-0 win over Australia; giving us the impression that Anders Lindegaard will be the Dane’s backup goalkeeper in Euro 2012.

The Portuguese forward is set to start on the opposite flank to former United star Cristiano Ronaldo.  This is Nani’s second senior international tournament following Euro 2008 after missing the 2010 World Cup.  Four years ago, Nani’s only start came in Portugal’s final group game which was a 2-0 defeat to Switzerland and he only made substitute appearances in 2 out of Portugal’s other 3 games.

This time around, Nani will be looking to make an impact in this tournament as a starter. But it won’t be easy for the Portugal national team as they have the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark in their group, all of whom are above them in FIFA’s World Rankings with all 4 making the top 10.  Coached by Paulo Bento, this team is well organised but struggles to compensate for the imbalance Ronaldo causes.

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Manchester United’s current right-back dilemma is a typical case of how you can have too much of a good thing. Blessed with at least five players who are all more than capable of lining up along side Ferdinand, Evans and Evra, Sir Alex currently lacks a stand out right back in the squad.

Since Gary Neville made the position his own, playing 400 games in that position, United have struggled to find a player capable of delivering the same levels of consistency both defensively and offensively, although Wes Brown certainly put in some of his finest performances for the club there.

This season, Sir Alex has chopped and changed his right-backs more often than the Coalition has changed its views on banks, pasty taxes and fighter jet orders. Inevitably, some of these changes have been forced on him through injury but despite this we are coming to the end of the season without any clear candidate for the right-back role next season.

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Most Reds will recall John O’Shea’s first full season as a United regular. He showed more than promise, he actually delivered almost from day one.

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24 goals, 0 defeats, the future of the team sorted and an attacking philosophy to make the purists purr with delight – on the face of it United have it all sorted with just a handful of Premier League games gone and an international break to reflect on their own success.

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Everyone is excited about Manchester United’s next generation of players and rightly so.

Much was made of the experience the team lacked on Monday – Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand were both out injured for example – but the Premier League Champions, with an average age of 23, secured a 3-0 win over Tottenham.

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Who would have thought that our destruction in the Champions League final, at the hands of Barcelona, could have been an awaking of something in Sir Alex Ferguson?

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