A disappointing 0-0 Champions League home draw against Rangers last night was made even worse for United by the news that Antonio Valencia is probably out for the season after breaking and/or dislocating his left ankle in an innocuous challenge with Kirk Broadfoot in the second half.
I'll start with the obvious and say that I hope Valencia makes a speedy recovery; regardless of club loyalty or a player's character, nobody likes to see injuries like that on the pitch.
It was especially unlucky seeing as it was a legitimate challenge by Broadfoot, and it was just an unfortunate combination of speed, the pitch, the stress on that particular joint, and the distribution of his body weight.
Anyway, it'll be intriguing to see what this means for United this season. I think that Valencia's injury will certainly affect how Wayne Rooney plays, or rather, the way in which Sir Alex Ferguson decides to utilise him.
Rooney got a lot of his goals (especially headers) from crosses by Valencia last season, following clever play by Valencia and Berbatov. Nani has shown that he can be a great crosser, and while he may arguably have more natural talent than Valencia, but he doesn't necessarily have the consistency to deliver crosses on a reliable basis as Valencia did last season.
Although he provided two sumptuous crosses for goals at Everton last week, the rest of his game was off-key, and it'll be interesting to see what the undoubted spell on the right wing will do for his overall performances and consistency. It's also not being that fair on Nani to expect his to just fill Valencia's shoes, as he's a winger that likes to cut in and shoot, rather than a more traditional winger such as Valencia. Thus, telling him to fill Valencias role on the right might be counter-productive, and could limit his game.
Nani aside, United don't really have another winger who is either talented enough, old enough or consistent enough to play on the left or right and be a conventional crossing winger, so I would think that Ferguson will have to adapt how United play this season. Nani will probably be made the full-time right winger, being allowed to cut in from the right more often, and the left-sided duties will be shared between Park, Obertan, Giggs and possibly even Fabio or Bebe.
Although Ryan Giggs has transformed into a fine creative central midfielder over the last few years, it's not surprising that he doesn't really have the necessary pace required to be a marauding left wing any more; whilst Park is great for big games, he sometimes lacks the intricacy needed against lesser opponents (such as in last night's game).
So, I think it's a perfect (as perfect as a horrible injury can be) opportunity to allow some of the younger players to stake a claim on the left, or perhaps adapt the formation to become more solid, with more or less the same players, but playing in a different manner.
What it does mean is that Rooney will probably have less chances to score than last season, as he won't realistically have somebody feeding him reliable crosses, and as a result, he may drop deeper to make things happen. However, Berbatov has looked good, and perhaps it might be the start of a more flexible formation of something like three in the centre, with three attackers/forwards.
----------------van der Sar-----------------
Rafael------Ferdinand----Vidic--------Evra
------Fletcher----Scholes----Anderson------
--Nani-----------Berbatov--------Rooney---
Rooney has shown that he can play well on the left, and with Berbatov's improvement in terms of his work rate and finishing, his clever play could be great for Rooney and Nani to link up with from inside left/right positions, as Malouda and Anelka do at Chelsea.
Given Rooney's general poor form recently, it might be better to give the in-form Berbatov more responsibility up top, as he's shown in the first few games that he finally seems up to the challenges of being at United. Width could come from giving the attacking full-backs (Evra, Rafael, Fabio) more license to get down the wings with the extra protection afforded by a third central midfielder, and the central midfield could do with an extra body at times, especially in the big games.
So, hopefully Valencia's operation will be a success, and he'll come back relatively soon. In the meantime, Ferguson has some thinking to do.
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