Dimitar Berbatov seldom looks like a man in a hurry, but he has set the sort of pace that will take Manchester United five points clear in the Premier League if they beat Blackpool tonight. The Bulgarian has scored 17 times this season. More importantly still, he has done so at a time when Wayne Rooney has one goal in open play for the club.
By keeping the side buoyant, Berbatov has ensured that the dry spell for his team-mate is more curiosity than crisis. Rooney, so deeply involved in the 5-0 defeat of Birmingham City at the weekend, might just have rediscovered his true self before coming under great pressure. The purchase of Berbatov from Tottenham Hotspur for £30.75m in 2008 looks as if it is making a little more sense.
His imagination and beautiful touch are assets any manager would covet, yet he breaches the sort of policy that now applies at Old Trafford. There is little, if any, money to be recouped on a player who had turned 28 before the end of his first season with United. It is odd now to think, too, that Sir Alex Ferguson was being asked last summer if he would off-load Berbatov. "No, no definitely not," said the manager. "He's a fantastic player."
And so he is, in many respects. There are too few performers in an era of hyper-energy who can still be called elegant, but the idea that Berbatov could be sold was not eccentric. He scored the moderate total of 26 goals over the course of his first two seasons. In the present campaign he has been on a spree, but there are some curious aspects to it. Any United forward would expect to do better at Old Trafford, but Berbatov is heavily dependant on home advantage. Fifteen of the 17 goals have come there, with eight of them in the matches against Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham.
He was not simply gorging himself since one of his three hat-tricks overcame Liverpool, who had levelled from 2-0 down. Berbatov is entitled to feel that he also has the attributes of a classic No10 who can prise open any defence. In at least one respect, however, the reliance on Berbatov is risky.
Common sense would suggest that the Champions League is his natural habitat since he is, after all, a smooth and cerebral figure, but the facts firmly oppose that view.
Berbatov has been unable to score in that competition since availing himself of a couple of goals during a 3-0 away victory over Aalborg in September 2008. It would be understandable if he were named among the substitutes when United meet Marseille at the Stade Vélodrome on 23 February. In the club's last outing in the knock-out phase of the Champions League, Berbatov did not start in either leg of the quarter-final with Bayern Munich.
He was introduced purely as an emergency measure at Old Trafford when Arjen Robben had trimmed United's lead to set up his team's victory in the tie on the away goals rule. Berbatov's role on such nights is also dictated by the virtually universal doctrine that there should be no more than one forward in the lineup for a key fixture. He lacks the vigour to clinch that role.
Berbatov's main contribution could be to have bought Rooney some time. It is uncanny that Ferguson has contrived to put United in such a good position this season. They are the joint-highest scorers, with Arsenal, in the Premier League, yet the main impression is of durability. They have had two away games against the other members of the current top five, taking goalless draws with no difficulty at Manchester City and Tottenham.
The Champions League, however, will demand expansiveness. Irrespective of Berbatov and the predatory promise of Javier Hernandez, it is essential that Rooney regains the old boldness in full. There were good reasons for him to recede considering the injuries that afflicted him throughout 2010. Ankle trouble has verged on the incessant and Rooney has started just 11 of United's 22 Premier League games this season.
Berbatov has covered well indeed for both the striker's absences and the tentativeness that has beset the England player when he is on the pitch, but that will not suffice for much longer. If United are to touch the higher level that will be essential in the Champions League, they must see Rooney become his old intuitive self again in the next month or two.
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