Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that the reason Manchester United are not closer to Chelsea at the top of the English Premier League is not because of a dearth of talent but rather because his players have forgotten about the necessary killer instinct which any team hoping to win the title will need.
The revelation is hardly amazing or even truly insightful but the fact that the long serving manager of Manchester United is willing to admit such a fault in his side suggests he believes the players can respond to his words, instead of ignoring what he says and shying away from the challenge.
To say that a killer instinct is necessary for a team to win the title is nothing new, it is a well established thought, even if the definition of what exactly a killer instinct is might be hard to detail. What is clear though is that any team that is 3-1 up against Everton at Goodison Park heading into injury time, as Manchester United were a couple of rounds previously, does not possess the aforementioned killer instinct if they then proceed to lose the two goal lead and draw the match 3-3.
The lack of a killer instinct has not only been apparent in that particular match at Everton but also at home against Glasgow Rangers in the Champions League and away in the Premiership against Sunderland, Bolton and Fulham. In each of these matches Manchester United have only managed to draw. In fact the only victories away from Old Trafford that the club have managed to record this season have been at Scunthorpe United in the Carling Cup and against Valencia in the Champions League. Ferguson said ”This current side doesn’t kill of other teams as well as they should.” ”That killer instinct just isn’t there at present and it is something we need to develop.” ”We haven’t had a problem scoring goals. We got three against Liverpool, Everton and West Ham, two away at Fulham, three in the Community Shield. That suggests we don’t have any difficulty in finding the back of the net. What we’re not doing, though, is killing teams off. I have no doubt the players have taken these setbacks on board. They suffer just as much, if not more, than the rest of us. They’re the ones throwing the points away and they know fine well that they are good enough to win the league.”
