Manchester United : Why Robin Van Persie Is A Perfect Fit For The Role Of Talisman

Manchester Unitedai??i??s midweek Champions League engagement against SC Braga saw Sir Alex Ferguson opting to leave a fully match fit Robin van Persie on the bench for the first time this season in a non League Cup fixture. On the face of it, the decision seemed to be a judicious one considering first, the need to protect a player with a horrendous track record of injuries and second, perhaps more pertinently, Sir Alexai??i??s own assertion over the past few weeks that he had in his hand a problem of plenty in the striking department. After all logic dictated that a team comprising of an all-star cast of offensive stalwarts such as Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck, Antonio Valencia and Nani would surely have too much of firepower for the Braga defense that was breached thrice at Old Trafford.

However, contrary to all logical expectations, the first seventy odd minutes of the games was played out with Manchester United offering very little in terms of genuine goal threat in spite of having most of the possession. Javier Hernandez cut a sorry figure in the lone striker role up front while the rest of his teammates struggled to eke out clear cut chances for the Mexican to capitalize on. In the meanwhile, the hosts had taken a somewhat deserved lead early in the second half and looked well on their way to a historic triumph. Enter Robin van Persie. With the very first glimpse of goal the Dutchman got, he made Braga shot stopper Beto pay for his momentary error of judgment in rushing out of his area and United were level. The goal was swiftly followed by strikes from Rooney and Hernandez to ensure United left Portugal with all three points but there was no hiding from the fact that without van Persieai??i??s introduction and subsequent impact, such an eventuality would surely have eluded United.

In the post match interviews, a host of United players themselves acknowledged the profound impact of the ex-Arsenal striker, not only on this match per se but on Unitedai??i??s season till date.

When you look at teams who have won this competition theyai??i??ve all had individuals who can do a bit of magic. Robin is a fantastic player. He has a calmness about him, holds the ball up well and brings others into the play. Heai??i??s great for the whole team, heai??i??s our talisman. If you get players around him and players feeding off him, itai??i??s great for us all. ai??i?? Wayne Rooney.

It wasn’t until we went one-nil down – probably when Robin came on – that we started to play a little bit better. The keeper came rushing out but he’s still a great finisher. I think everybody knew when he went through that there was only going to be one outcome. ai??i?? Ryan Giggs.

But while United players canai??i??t stop gushing over their new recruit, van Persieai??i??s virtuoso displays in Redsai??i?? shirt has understandably led observers to question the extent of the teamai??i??s dependency on him. In other words, like Arsenal last season, are United over reliant on van Persie?

It may feel like a thorny issue for the supporters to accept, but based on sheer evidence it will be difficult to completely refute such claims. The reprieve though lies in the fact that their team could do a lot worse than relying on a man of the caliber of van Persie. While a lot is to be said for a team where all individuals are of equal importance, such is rarely the case in football, or for that matter, any team sport. Unitedai??i??s own illustrious history is dotted with a number of examples of individuals inspiring the team to glittering heights on the back of a series of scintillating displays.

In this regard, van Persieai??i??s present standing in Unitedai??i??s team is no different to that of his countryman Ruud van Nistelrooy during the latterai??i??s time at Old Trafford. Like van Nistelrooy, van Persie too is a goal scorer par excellence; but where van Persie does outshine his predecessor is in his overall contribution to the game.

There is no denying that van Nistelrooyai??i??s contribution to Unitedai??i??s cause in the five seasons he spent at the club was immense. A staggering 149 goals bear testament to that particular fact. However, in spite of his goal-scoring exploits, those five seasons resulted in only one Premier League title, one FA Cup and a solitary League Cup triumph for the club. While an analysis of the causes behind such a barren spell would rightly direct the spotlight on the lack of an imposing goalkeeper and a leaky defense during that time, one of the underlying factors was the one-dimensional approach that the team had to adopt in order to accommodate van Nistelrooy and his goals. The Dutchmanai??i??s reluctance to make space for others to thrive made it comparatively easy for opposing managers to strategize against United during those days; mark van Nistelrooy tightly (a task easier said than done, mind you) and you nullify Unitedai??i??s goal threat.

It was no coincidence that his controversial departure in 2006 was immediately followed by a season which saw United playing a free-flowing, effervescent brand of attacking football that had not been seen for a while at Old Trafford. The positional interchanges between the likes of Rooney, Louis Saha, Cristiano Ronaldo and Giggs were at times breathtaking, and often proved impossible for opposition defenders to live with. Such evidence made apparent the shackles imposed on rest of the team due to the influence of the Dutchman in the previous years.

On the other hand, similar criticism can never be leveled at van Persie. He may be at his lethal best in the role of the most advanced forward of the pitch, but even in the short time at the club he has shown a willingness to drop deep and drift into wide areas in order to bring others into play. His performance in Unitedai??i??s win at Stamford Bridge perfectly illustrates the extent of the versatility he brings to the table even while playing the role of the lone man up front.

For the first goal, he hung around behind the play allowing Ashley Young to keep the Chelsea defenders occupied in the box while waiting for the perfect time to make a late run and crash a shot off the post that led to David Luiz own goal. For the second goal, his predatory instincts were at its sharpest as his multiple changes in direction made it difficult for Chelsea defenders to pick him up and resulted in a simple side footed finish. Then in the second half, with Chelsea very much in the ascendancy, van Persie produced a deft piece of play that induced Branislav Ivanovic to commit a red card earning offence and turned the tide irrevocably in Unitedai??i??s favour. He dropped deep to drag Gary Cahill out of position, turned his man effortlessly and released a perfectly weighted ball to send Young, who had drifted into the space left vacant by Cahill, through on goal. In the buildup to the winner, he seemed to find for himself a pocket of space in a crowded penalty box ai??i?? a hallmark of all great strikers ai??i?? in which he turned and delivered a shot which would finally result in Hernandezai??i??s strike.

The way he married a traditional centre forward role with that of a modern false nine in this game ai??i?? a match of immense magnitude – was exemplary. Outside of this there are other examples as well; his eye-of-the-needle pass for Shinji Kagawaai??i??s strike against Spurs and sumptuous cross for Rooney to head in against Stoke are cases in point.

Indeed, one of the reasons why Sir Alexai??i??s dalliances with an experimental diamond formation have met with success is the positional flexibility of van Persie. In the game against Newcastle at St. Jamesai??i?? Park, van Persie repeatedly run the flanks, almost as an auxiliary winger, to compensate for the lack of natural width associated with the formation. With van Persie willing to supply the bullets, not just fire them, the goal scoring targets set by Sir Alex for the likes of Rooney and Hernandez seems more than achievable.

The man himself has expressed his desire to contribute more than just goals to his new team. Such have been his all-round impact that in explaining his role in the team and his blossoming partnership with Rooney, he had to resort to concocting a new term ai??i?? the so-called ai???nine and a halfai??i??. A nod of appreciation goes towards his ability to improvise, off the field as well.

As impressive as his exploits have been in other areas of the pitch this season, they still get overshadowed by the number of goals he has plundered already. A return of 11 goals in 14 appearances is outstanding in its own right. While it may be a crude method of judging a playerai??i??s impact on team results, but if one removes van Persieai??i??s goals this season, United would be 11 point worse off in the league at this stage and looking up at the likes of Fulham and West Ham in the table. And he is no flat track bully either. Without his goals, United would have drawn their fixtures against Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, instead of winning all three.

All the above stats point to a single incontrovertible fact: in Robin van Persie, United have acquired a truly special player operating at the peak of his powers. His goals, his assists and his general play, all combine to put him in a class of his own in this country. His greatest test will not be provided by opposition but surely by his ability, or rather the lack of it, to keep himself fit for the entire season. In that respect, he probably could not have chosen to be in a better club. In spite of a spate of lengthy injury related lay-offs suffered by a number of the playing staff in recent years, Unitedai??i??s medical department is generally considered to be the one of best in entire Europe in terms of handling players with dodgy body parts such as Giggsai??i?? hamstrings and Ferdinandai??i??s back.

Sir Alex too, will know that the lesser he has to call upon van Persie, like he had to against Braga, better are the chances of his new talisman being in top shape come the seasonai??i??s conclusion. But call upon him or not, the manager would surely admit, the option to fall back on a player such as him is a hugely reassuring sensation. The critics are entitled to their own opinion on the matter, but for Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United, till now the returns accrued from banking on Robin van Persie is too attractive for it to become a serious concern.

Tags: Manchester United Robin Van Persie

Manchester United : Why Robin Van Persie Is A Perfect Fit For The Role Of Talisman

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