MANCHESTER UNITED 4 HULL CITY 3:PHIL BROWN knows that comparisons are invidious and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so he was understandably reluctant to be drawn into a debate about Manchester United's and Chelsea's contrasting charms.
Hull's manager did, though, make one rather telling aside. "There was a world-class midfield performance against us from Frank Lampard on Wednesday night," reflected Brown, whose side arrived at Old Trafford on the rebound from a 3-0 defeat against Luiz Felipe Scolari's men.
Although he subsequently enthused about United's own "world-class" individuals and "the magic" of Dimitar Berbatov in particular, it cannot have escaped Brown's attention that central midfield housed a chink in Alex Ferguson's armour.
On a day when Berbatov and Cristiano Ronaldo played some gorgeously sublime football while serving notice of a burgeoning understanding, United could, nonetheless, have done with a Lampard running the game.
Admittedly Ronaldo, who scored twice, Berbatov, Carlos Tevez, and an increasingly annoyed Wayne Rooney all spurned inviting opportunities to send Hull back along the M62 thoroughly thrashed but, as dusk descended, United's lack of midfield authority threatened to undo them.
With a 4-1 lead narrowed to 4-3, the closing eight minutes featured Ronaldo making a last-ditch clearance, Rooney becoming enveloped in red mist and home fans frantically urging the referee to blow the final whistle.
"We got ourselves in an embarrassing situation," said Ferguson whose attacking riches - Tevez, once again, began on the bench - are leavened by a surprising shortage of a string-puller.
Granted, Michael Carrick, newly fit after injury, can dictate games from that department and it was no coincidence that United began seriously wobbling following his withdrawal but, right now, Carrick is not quite in Lampard's league.
Moreover, he does not enjoy the luxury of playing alongside a midfield anchor in the mould of Chelsea's enforcer Mikel John Obi. Instead, with Owen Hargreaves facing knee surgery and a six-month lay-off, Carrick found himself alongside the predominantly attack-minded Anderson.
"Tactically United had problems with us when we switched from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2," said Hull's George Boateng. "When we went one on one on them, they didn't know what to do. We had them rocking."
Initially, that barely seemed to matter. As Ronaldo's shot opened the scoring courtesy of a wonderfully intuitive interchange of flicked and backheeled volleys with Berbatov, orthodox tactics appeared almost irrelevant.
Despite Hull equalising through Daniel Cousin's glancing header from Andy Dawson's free-kick, Berbatov was elevating United - who visit Arsenal on Saturday - to a level where the usual rules are gloriously transcended.
The Bulgarian creates most United goals these days and, sure enough, his weighted pass enabled Carrick to direct a left-foot shot in off a post.
United's third and fourth, a Ronaldo header and a Nemanja Vidic half-volley, came from Rooney corners but the introduction of Bernard Mendy galvanised Hull and the midfielder reduced the deficit when Patrice Evra's error enabled him to lob Edwin van der Sar. Then Rio Ferdinand hauled Mendy back, conceding a penalty well executed by Geovanni.
It prefaced a thrilling denouement occasioned partly by Ferguson's defenders lacking adequate protection.
"Look at the penalty Rio Ferdinand gave away," Boateng mused. "Normally he would stand up in that situation but he was doing a lot of running and getting disappointed."
Ferdinand was not alone. After aiming a two-foot lunge at Boateng as they contested a dropped ball Rooney followed up with a wild, high hack at Dawson, was rightly booked and could conceivably have been dismissed in the wake of an expletive-filled show of dissent.
The England forward's mood might have turned cheerier had Michael Turner, already on a yellow card, earned another for clipping Carrick. But a sending-off would have been harsh on a Hull team much more about creation than containment.
Guardian Service
