It has not taken Owen Hargreaves long to speak Manchester United. All the
correct terminology is used. Wayne Rooney is “Wazza”, Nemanja Vidic, “Vida”,
he mentions “Giggsy and Scholesy”, not “Ryan and Paul”, as a naive new squad
addition might. And the most important person is afforded his proper
soubriquets.
“The Manager knows what he needs,” Hargreaves says, or “it was The Boss’s idea
. . .” Hargreaves talks the lingo as if Carrington has been his workplace
for years. Born in Canada of English parents, it took him a long time to
become a footballer in this country and at the club he long wanted to play
for but Hargreaves and United now seem a perfect fit.
It was different in Germany. Plucked from Canada, he arrived at Bayern Munich
an adolescent in a strange country, but there was no willkommen mat. “At
Bayern, the tension in the team was probably a bit too much. There were
tackles and fights all the time. I remember my first season, you can’t
imagine how many fist fights I had with older players. They felt threatened
by me,” Hargreaves says. “I wasn’t going about my business in a poor way, I
was just playing hard, training hard and making myself be known. They took
offence because they could feel me coming through.
“Here it’s not like that at all. There’s no animosity. If you play, you’re
good enough and you deserve to play. It’s not a case of being dropped or
anything like that and if you play for United you realise there’s a bigger
picture. Every player here has a different style and who’s picked depends on
how we want to play. We played Arsenal and Lyons back to back and picked
different teams in both games.”
It is not just that United are what Hargreaves wants; Hargreaves is what
United want, and that, of course, is no accident. After the Djemba-Djemba/
Kleberson/Bellion summer of 2003, when missing out on Ronaldinho appeared to
make Sir Alex Ferguson take a funny turn in the transfer market, he has been
pristine with his signings and the secret has been concentrating on one or
two specific targets per season rather than buying en masse. Where Rafael
Benitez might spend a transfer window acquiring three or four Yossi
Benayouns for £18m, the Ferguson policy is to buy one Anderson or Michael
Carrick for the same price. So it was with Hargreaves, who United spent
almost two years trying to prise from Bayern prior to his arrival in July
2007. “Man United sign their players specifically based on the needs of the
team, which is very clever. A lot of teams don’t do that. They buy anyone,
or just look at the name, then try and fit all the players together,”
Hargreaves says.
Ferguson was looking for a holding player, but not any old holding player. He
wanted a midfielder who would sit, but not sit still. Defensive midfield
measures are required in modern football but given the number of attacking
options he still wanted fitted into his side, Ferguson wondered if he might
not be able to get one player to do the spoiling midfield job other clubs
use two to do. Not only would that player need positional awareness and
discipline, but also levels of fitness and speed necessary to get about the
normal territory of two men. Step forward Hargreaves; Arsène Wenger, for
similar reasons, alighted on Mathieu Flamini.
“The manager knows what he needs and because we play so open and attacking, we
need someone who is not just a traditional holding midfield player but who
can cover a lot of ground as well, because the distances are quite big. I
knew that coming in, and that’s what I do best,” says Hargreaves. “I had to
play against Kaka last year and that’s why they signed me. Against Lyons my
job was to keep an eye on Juninho and limit his abilities. When you play
against these top players it’s difficult to completely knock them out of the
game, because they’re that good, but you do what you can.
“Ideally, everyone would like to have the stepovers and overhead kicks and be
like Ronaldo. But we all have abilities and you learn what you do well, and
then focus on doing that. When you’re younger you want to try to do
everything, but here you’ve got to look at the bigger picture. We’re all
pieces of a puzzle and the pieces fit to make our team, and if everybody
does what they do well we can probably beat any team in the world.”
With such a mindset it seems bizarre that Hargreaves was watched by Liverpool
when his team came over from Canada for an under-14 tournament in Wales and
was rejected by Steve Heighway, Liverpool’s then academy manager, who told
Hargreaves’s father: “Nah, he’s too greedy.” Nowadays, selflessness is his
key. Ferguson has said it is in Europe that he expects Hargreaves to make
the biggest difference to United, and while injuries restricted his
involvement in the Champions League group stages to one 11-minute substitute
appearance against Sporting Lisbon, he was straight into the team for the
first knockout stage first leg against Lyons and is expected to start in
Tuesday’s return game at Old Trafford.
He has the pedigree, having won the Champions League with Bayern before he
started a game for England. He also has the confidence. “United are like
Bayern,” he says. “For us even a draw is a bad result. I expect us to be in
the FA Cup final, I expect us to be in the Champions League final and,
hopefully, to win the league again. We have the abilities.”
Hargreaves feels that despite the fact that one away goal for Lyons could
alter the dynamic of the tie, United should progress. “It will be difficult
for them to score at Old Trafford because it is for any opponent, and we
felt 1-1 over there was a good result,” he says. “An away goal in the
Champions League is massive. I thought [Karim] Benzema played well and
scored a great goal, but we contained them in open play and it was just the
set-pieces that were dangerous.”
Though the tendinitis that ruined the early part of his season can still flare
up on a firm surface, the sky appears otherwise cloudless for this
Germano-Canuck Englishman. “I never thought I’d travel so much,” he says. “I
look at the places I’ve lived like chapters in a book. There’s no point
reminiscing. I’m here now and enjoying it. At Munich, you were expected to
know your place. There’s a hierarchy. Here, if you’re good, you’re good.
There are no young and old players, they say, only good and bad ones. I
think in England that is a true statement.”
Capello’s verdict
This game won’t be easy, but it was good for United to get the away goal.
Lyons have to score at Old Trafford, but if they come to attack, it will be
present a problem. Everyone knows if United fi nd the space on the
counter-attack they will be dangerous. I remember United v Roma last season.
When Roma attacked, United counter-attacked. We all saw what happened then.
If United play to their strengths in this competition they can achieve
success
The protector: how Owen Hargreaves shields his defence
Two heads are better than one? Not if you’re Sir Alex Ferguson. Whereas most
top teams in Europe use at least two ‘sitting’ midfielders to protect their
defence, Manchester United deploy just one. Ferguson was specific about his
requirements when he signed Hargreaves, realising the need for a more
defensive midfield player to use in the Champions League but not wanting to
compromise too far his attacking principles. The solution was to find a
player who could not only hold a defensive position in front of United’s
back four, but get around a large area of midfield to make tackles and
interceptions while more positive midfielders like Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs
or Anderson could concentrate on going forward. The player to fit the bill
would have to be disciplined, aggressive, quick and super-fit: step forward
Hargreaves
In midfield, Scholes’s job is to pass the ball forward and go up in support of
attacks. Hargreaves, meanwhile, stays, ready to dash across to wherever
necessary to make a tackle or interception if United’s move breaks down and
the opposition gain possession. Against Lyons he had the additional
responsibility of looking after the elusive Juninho, who plays a roving role
behind Lyons’s front line. Of the 16 teams to play in the Champions League
first knockout stage on February 21-22, only two others used the same
attacking model as United: Barcelona, for who Yaya Toure is a solo defensive
midfielder, and Arsenal, where Mathieu Flamini is the closest to a copy of
Hargreaves
Chelsea: 4-3-3
Chelsea prefer a 4-3-3 formation which offers plenty of protection for their
defence. At least one ‘sitting’ player is used - Claude Makelele or Jon Obi
Mikel - and two multi-purpose midfielders, who defend as well as attack.
Other Champions League teams who use a similar sytem are AC Milan, Real
Madrid, Roma, Porto, Lyons, Olympiakos, Fenerbahce and Liverpool
Where to catch this week’s Champions League action
AC MILAN (0) V ARSENAL (0)
Tuesday, ITV4, 7.30pm, kick-off 7.45pm
Arsenal to progress? Why? Arsenal have played only one game in the San
Siro and scored five goals
Why not? The Gunners have won only two of their past nine Champions
League away games
What are their chances? Since 1994, only six teams have managed to
qualify after drawing 0-0 at home in the fi rst leg. The last one was Roma
last season, who overcame Lyons 2-0 in France to qualify for the
quarter-finals
BARCELONA (3) V CELTIC (2)
Tuesday, Sky Sports 2, 7pm, kick-off 7.45pm
Celtic to progress? Why? The only Champions League away game in which
Celtic have ever avoided defeat was at Barcelona, back in November 2004
Why not? But the Bhoys have never won an away game in the Champions
League What are their chances? Only eight teams since 1994 have gone
through despite conceding three goals in the first leg. The last team to do
it were AC Milan in last year’s semi-finals. They lost 3-2 at Old Trafford
but destroyed Manchester United 3-0 to make it to the fi nal. However, all
these teams were at home for the second leg, which makes Celtic’s task even
more difficult
MAN UTD (1) V LYONS (1)
Tuesday, ITV1, 7.30pm, kick-off 7.45pm
United to progress? Why? United have never lost at home to a French
side in the Champions League
Why not? Lyons have won their past two Champions League away fi xtures
and lost just one of their past seven away trips in the competition
What are their chances? Only six teams have failed to go through since
1994 after drawing their first leg 1-1 away from home. The only time it
happened to an English club was in the 2004 quarter-finals when Arsenal drew
1-1 at Chelsea but lost 2-1 at home
CHELSEA (0) V OLYMPIAKOS (0)
Wednesday, Sky Sports 2, 6pm, kick-off 7.45pm
Chelsea to progress? Why? It is more than two years since Chelsea lost
a home game in the Champions League
Why not? Every Chelsea home game has been to a club from a
Mediterranean country (Barcelona, Besiktas and Lazio)
What are their chances? They are in a similar situation to Arsenal, but
their task is made slightly easier because at least they have home advantage
this time
THE OTHER TIES
Sevilla (2) v Fenerbahce (3)
Tuesday, Sky Sports 3, 7.30pm, kick-off 7.45pm
Real Madrid (1) v AS Roma (2)
Wednesday, Sky Sports 3, 7.30pm, kick-off 7.45pm
Porto (0) v Schalke (1)
Wednesday, Sky Sports Interactive, 7.45pm
Inter Milan (0) v Liverpool (2)
This match has been put back to Tuesday, March 11, for security reasons
