"How on earth did Fergie win the league in his final season with that lot ?" Sheer pride and force of will. IMHO he would have quit in 2012 if he had won the PL.
Fergie always had the referees in his pocket also, which helps greatly, much like Rodgers appears to have now.
Ferguson had a slightly different side to the one that they've got now and he bailed at exactly the right time. Players were either on the way out or looking for the door and he didn't bring in the right replacements or balance their squad out, as he wasn't going to be there. Who's replaced Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Berbatov, Park Ji-Sung, a fully fit Fletcher, etc? He did well with what he had available, but he left a poisoned chalice for the next man. Their squad's a mess, despite the quality that they have in attack.
Did he have vidic and berba in the final season ? And giggs and ferdinand were pretty much done as well weren 't they ? Edit : sorry, my bad on vidic.
I'd agree with what PNP said - and disagree with Whinger. I think Fergie knew damn well that the squad was unbalanced, and that a lot of them were getting up to their sell by date. Yet still, nothing was done. His fault? The Glazer's? Who knows, but the cracks were clearly there for all to see.
I was away when you posted this. Listen, Utd won the league by a landslide in 2013. No poor team wins by a landslide especially when your competitors have the resources available to them that City and Chelsea have. RvP and Rooney were a very potent force up front. Carrick had a great season; Rio did very well - both made the PFA team of the year. The team were incredibly resilient - look at some of the comebacks that year. Bit part players like Hernandez chipped in whenever needed. The players stood up to be counted in the big games. But most significantly, between 29/12/12 and 8/4/13 the team conceded 3 goals in 11 PL games. Can't defend? They could then. Jonny Evans played 21 games and 2 as sub. 3 years earlier he'd played almost all the games in van der Sar's record breaking run of clean sheets. He can defend when in form.
Vert loves Poch is a subject on News Now. Well I'm very happy for him but I'd like him to convert that love to the love of football on the pitch and this is what Ferguson had the ability to do with whoever he had playing for him. If the players are happy then they'll perform and this article states that under AVB and Sherwood the players were not happy and so didn't play well. So the coaches must make the players and not themselves the priority, keep them happy so that they enjoy their football and want to win. Ferguson gave his players self belief because belittling players rocks their confidence and they do not perform. Take not Poch.
