International break relief for Man U, distraction for Liverpool

MARCH 23 — This week’s international break for World Cup qualifiers could not have come at a better time for Manchester United.

First, it gives time for Wayne Rooney to work out his frustrations at being sent off during the last 10 minutes of their loss to Fulham. Secondly, it gives many of their senior players a chance to also break away and take their minds off MU’s last two results, and the continuing worry over Alex Ferguson’s next hair-dryer treatment, until they return from international duty.

After all, the internationals — to be played this Saturday and next Wednesday — are not just friendlies, they are World Cup qualifiers. The players representing their nations will need to be fully-focused as they would be keen on helping their countries qualify for next year’s World Cup finals in South Africa. It is every player’s dream to play in the World Cup.

With that comes the worry of injuries affecting the key players, not just for MU, but for Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea. At this crucial stage of the season, do players want to jeopardise domestic title hopes and even Champions League glory for national pride and honour?

Some of the senior players — the likes of Steven Gerrard, Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Ballack, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard — who have all played in the World Cup before, could be tempted to take it easy for the sake of their club’s fortunes. It will be vehemently denied of course, but the evidence will be there for all to see when they take to the field.

Where England are concerned, the other side of the coin is that none of the players mentioned above would also like to get on the wrong side of the first no-nonsense England manager in more than 30 years, Fabio Capello.

He doesn’t care for reputation and player salaries. All that matters to him are players who are willing to do the work for him and do it well.

Two of them, Ferdinand and Rooney, would not need reminding too that they have another ‘master’ to answer too in Fergie. Success in the English Premier League (EPL) is still MU’s to be lost, and not Liverpool’s to win, after seeing a seven-point lead dwindle down to one point, though still with the game in hand.

But with two losses in a row (besides a 1-6 goal deficit) and three red cards, are these players starting to feel the heat? Will it affect their performance in an England jersey?

Moving on to last weekend’s premiership matches. Losing 4-1 at home to arch rivals Liverpool was bad enough for MU’s players and ardent supporters.

But all the talk of bouncing back, which this writer dared to predict against (“No bouncing back for Manchester United”) has fallen flat with the 2-0 loss away to Fulham, a team they had beaten twice already this season — a 3-0 league win at Old Trafford and a 4-0 thumping in the FA Cup.

The irony is that the latter win was at Craven Cottage just two weekends ago. How things can change in such a short time.

What’s worrying for Manchester United is that with Ronaldo, Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez, they couldn’t create and score a single goal in their past two league matches other than a penalty the previous weekend against Liverpool.

This kind of proves the theory that all those 1-0 wins, against seven weaker teams between December 2008 and February this year, were indeed fortunate results with the opposition not really playing to win but just hoping to draw against the perceived might of MU.

With such a game plan by the opponents, it is no wonder that MU also controlled most of the possession and by virtue of that, also had more shots on goal.

Now that Fulham have really shown how to lay the pressure and get a goal or two, the remaining teams in MU’s schedule till the end of the season have it all to play for, especially, those challenging to be in Europe or fighting to avoid relegation.

Liverpool showed the rest of the EPL that last week’s 4-0 and 4-1 thrashing of the defending league champions of Spain and England, respectively, was no fluke and proceeded to score five goals without reply against Aston Villa.

Steven Gerrard notching up a hattrick certainly bodes well for the Reds. A fit and in-form Gerrard is almost like an aphrodisiac in getting the rest of the team to perform over and above their usual levels.

But this international break will have the opposite effect on their team spirit as it disrupts the positive buzz built-up around Anfield this past two weeks and breaks the momentum of resounding victories.

So, the real test comes on April 4, after the international break, when Liverpool travel to Fulham wanting to show the rest of the EPL that they are indeed the better team of the top two, by taking all three points at the more-recent MU-conquerors’ home turf.

And this match will be closely watched in direct relation to the MU vs Aston Villa tie on the same day following the results of the past weekend.

I would go so far as to say that it could become the day the leadership of the EPL changes hands again since MU overtook Liverpool for the first time this season on January 17.

The other surprise result of the weekend was the third title-contender, Chelsea, losing to local London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. No one would’ve guessed that Guus Hiddink’s first defeat as (interim) manager of the Blues will be to the likes of Harry Redknapp.

But all credit to Hiddink. He didn’t give any excuses unlike certain other managers in the EPL — stand up Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez and Phil Brown — and said the scoreline is valid to reflect which team was better over the 90 minutes. This despite the fact that Chelsea threw everything and the kitchen sink at Spurs, especially in the last 10 minutes, but just failed to put the ball in the net.

While some of his players join their international team-mates this week for the World Cup qualifiers, Hiddink will be the only manager from among the clubs in the top leagues of the major European countries to also be away on international duty.

For the record, he will resume his main job as coach of the Russian national team and reunite with two of his players who are also based in London, Arsenal’s Andrey Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko of Spurs.