Ferguson's dilemma: how to use Veron the gifted one

United manager broke the mould with his signing of the Argentine. But the side-effects have been alarming

There is a mood of brooding irritation about Sir Alex Ferguson at the moment that was underlined by television this past week. There on our screens was football's Mr Grumpy with a smile as wide and as strong as a Roy Keane thigh and it provoked genuine surprise. No one could remember the last time he had looked so happy.

But if the red knight is grouchy, so are others as a poll on the Manchester Evening News website revealed on Friday. Asked why Manchester United are riding the crest of a slump, "Irritated of the Internet" and his ilk had apportioned the blame and 51 per cent dumped it at Ferguson's door. In comparison, the lack of a coach (19 per cent), the defence (17) and low team morale (13) were also-rans.

This less than ringing endorsement was provoked by hapless performances against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, so it was no wonder that Ferguson's mood was adjusted by Wednesday's 3-0 win over Boavista. United may be threatening to join the also-rans in the Premiership but in the Champions' League they are top of Group A and have until 20 February to sort themselves out.

Then they will face two matches against Nantes, who are bottom of the French First Division and whose run in Europe appears to have hit a wall of their own impotence if a record of one goal in their last six Champions' League matches is indicative. Maximum points against them and United will almost certainly be through to the quarter-final stage with two group matches to play.

That is the rosy scenario that would incorporate a rapid upsurge in domestic form, but ignores a fundamental problem that Ferguson has yet fully to confront. Ever since he spent £28m on Juan Sebastian Veron, the United manager has not been able properly to assimilate the Argentine into his team.

A decade of success has been built on a hard-running, robust central midfield largely comprising two of Bryan Robson, Paul Ince, Roy Keane and Nicky Butt. There have been slight variations on the theme when Brian McClair and Paul Scholes have filled the pivotal roles but the model has remained the same. To a point where Ferguson believed his team had become predictable, at least in Europe.

When he bought Veron he broke the mould in search of something different but change rarely arrives smoothly and United have spent four months juggling minuses and pluses. The Argentine is wonderfully gifted and gives the attack passes they have never seen before but he cannot tackle like Keane, Scholes and Butt and he does not have their lung-busting energy either.

As a consequence Ferguson has been tinkering with a midfield commonly regarded as among the best in Europe. Scholes has played as a striker, Keane a defender and Premiership opponents have played merry hell in recent weeks with the indecision it has brought. Players like certainty and at the moment United change their formation and their personnel more often than their shirts.

Of course not every problem is down to changes in midfield – Veron's genius demands inclusion and he could hardly be blamed for Laurent Blanc's lack of pace, Wes Brown's shredded confidence and Gary Neville's temporary amnesia concerning the offside law – but they have maximum points in the Premiership when he is not in the side.

On Wednesday the problem was resolved but only at the cost of resting David Beckham. With a solid centre of Butt and Keane, Veron used the right flank as a launch pad to drift, spreading his talents across the pitch. His pass to Phil Neville for United's first goal was a thing of beauty, a flick to Dwight Yorke that flat-footed three Boavista defenders and could have inspired poetry.

Having Butt as insurance in front of the back four also allowed Keane to break forward with staggering effect and reinforced the confidence of the players behind him. Blanc, apart from a momentary lapse when his indecision let Alexandre Goulart glide past, had the quiet authority of a studious gendarme while Gary Neville, playing as a centre-half, organised and chivvied.

When United scored their second goal it was the elder of the Neville brothers who gestured to the crowd to make sure the volume remained above the normal Saturday afternoon murmur.

Two tackling central midfield players was not Ferguson's only nod at traditional values because he employed a 4-4-2 system that gave Veron greater choice and Ruud van Nistelrooy more space. It stands to reason that the Dutchman, who now has 11 goals in 17 starts, including six in Europe, will have less attention from defenders when he is not the lone striker and with Yorke, whom the manager praised for his distribution, alongside him Boavista looked doubly distracted.

Ferguson said he had used two strikers because he wanted to preoccupy the three Portuguese centre-backs but even if he wants to pursue 4-4-1-1, Yorke, who has played as both a midfield player and a striker in the past, is surely the player most suited for the role of filling the "hole". If the motivation is there – and it has not always been apparent – the ability certainly is.

The problem for Ferguson, however, is mathematical. United prospered against a too easily dispirited Boavista partly because they reverted to type. If he wants two ball winners in central midfield and Yorke or Andy Cole to partner Van Nistelrooy he has to squeeze Veron, Beckham and Ryan Giggs into the two remaining places.

It is the conundrum that has defined United's season to date and threatens to continue to do so. Can Beckham, who tonight will probably be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, play in the same side as Veron? If Ferguson has a ready solution to that one, it will be the Scotsman who will have the last laugh.