THE INDIE
Unleashed on a defence like he was yesterday, that repertoire of feints and step-overs lent a new hard edge of purpose, it was difficult to disagree with Sir Alex Ferguson when he says that the summer's events were "a defining moment" for Cristiano Ronaldo. If only the Manchester United manager could be quite so certain that Wayne Rooney is not suffering from some form of post-World Cup finals trauma.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the two goals that took his side back to the top of the Premiership yesterday, but there was no doubting the main man. The Portuguese sprite on the left wing was the man who left his marker Stephen Carr reaching out helplessly for handfuls of red jersey or lashing out at his disappearing heels. He used to be the novelty act at United; now it seems that Ronaldo is content only to run the whole show.
The contrasting fortunes of the two young men upon whom United's future, and certainly this season, seems to rest is at the heart of the matter for Ferguson. Ronaldo cracked the woodwork of Newcastle United's goal three times yesterday, he traumatised Carr to the point that when the Irishman was due his second booking for fouling the winger, the referee Mike Dean appeared to take pity. As Ronaldo flourished, Rooney's game seemed to drift into irrelevance.
Certainly, Ferguson needs both on form, and at the very least you would expect Rooney to have been contesting the ownership of a promising free-kick on the edge of a besieged Newcastle area as time ticked away. Instead he rested on his haunches in exhaustion and then wandered away to allow his young comrade another tilt at finding a Newcastle goal he had terrorised all afternoon.
"Marvellous," was Ferguson's instinctive reaction to the first mention of Ronaldo's performance. "But he's been marvellous since the start of the season. Nothing fazes him; he's got such great courage."
As for the World Cup quarter-finals episode, Ferguson suggested that may have been Ronaldo's "defining moment", adding: "But I always expected him to be a great player, I always said that I could only see greatness ahead of him."
That kind of hyperbole does not suit Rooney at the moment and he is not even the one who has to endure every touch being booed by the opposition's fans. There could hardly be a better time to redeem himself than next Saturday against Macedonia when he wears an England shirt for the first time since he planted a boot between the legs of Ricardo Carvalho in Gelsenkirchen three months ago. The events of that torrid, hot afternoon seem to weigh more heavily on him than the team-mate who was his tormentor that day.
THE TIMES
A few thousand noisy Geordies challenged the home crowd to a singing contest, but that was about as much competition as there was at Old Trafford yesterday. Glenn Roeder, the Newcastle United manager, raised the white flag even before kick-off when he left Obafemi Martins on the bench.
Strange to think that not so long ago this was one of the most rousing of Premiership fixtures. Yesterday it was an exercise in guessing how many Manchester United would score and, had Cristiano Ronaldo not appeared to be on a bonus for hitting the woodwork, the margin could have been five or six.
Newcastle are by no means the only team to go to Old Trafford with a five-man midfield — Arsenal won using such tactics recently — but where they distinguished themselves was with a lack of courage or ambition.
Shola Ameobi was so isolated up front that he could have released a distress flare. "I still believe what we attempted to do is the correct thing," Roeder said, which can be true only if he regards trips to the top four clubs as exercises solely in damage limitation.
It was expected that Steve McClaren, the England head coach, might come to watch Scott Parker and Michael Carrick contest for the holding role against FYR Macedonia on Saturday, but he chose wisely in staying away to start the BUPA Great North Run. Neither candidate played particularly well, but not much can be meaningfully assessed in a match when only one team are trying to win.
McClaren would only have been frustrated by watching the internationally retired Paul Scholes look the best central midfield player on the pitch, while Newcastle lined up with Nicky Butt in the holding role with Parker slightly to the side. Even with more bodies in that critical area, the visiting team were outmanoeuvred, though the breakthrough took 41 minutes.
With Louis Saha kept on the bench with a niggle, it was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who scored his third goal of this uplifting comeback season, but, inevitably, Ronaldo was the creator. The strutting Portuguese extended his exhilarating run of form, although such was the ease with which he dashed past his markers that he began to indulge himself by the end, peppering the crowd with wayward strikes.
Darren Fletcher had struck one post from 25 yards when Ronaldo, fatefully, dispatched the first of his three shots against the woodwork. The ball rebounded to Solskjaer to steer in.
Moments earlier, Parker had become the first of three Newcastle players to be booked, all of them for fouls on Ronaldo. "Everyone is finding it difficult to cope with him, and I mean everybody," Roeder said. "However United are playing, he is the focal point of everything they are doing along with (Wayne) Rooney."
There is no doubt that Ronaldo is playing with a heightened sense of purpose after the turmoil of the summer. "It is difficult to say if what happened in the summer is a defining moment, but I always thought he was going to be a great player," Ferguson said. "He showed tremendous courage today." Rooney continued to labour in Ronaldo's shadow, the England forward still striving to find his form. He did not play badly, but he would have hoped to have scored a morale-boosting goal on an afternoon when chances came regularly.
THE GUARDIAN
Sir Alex Ferguson sat back in his seat as full-time approached here, the smile of satisfaction plastered across his face suggesting normal service had been resumed. Manchester United retire into the international break top of the Premiership, their victory yesterday smoothed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first home league goals since April 2003 and a characteristically searing performance from the youthful inspiration within their ranks.
The only concern, more trifling for club than country, was that this game's outstanding talent was not Wayne Rooney but Cristiano Ronaldo. The pair have experienced contrasting fortunes since their spat in Gelsenkirchen exactly three months previously but, where the Portuguese has used the catcalls from opposing supporters which continue to greet his every touch as a source of defiant inspiration, Rooney is floundering, arguably in the first patch of stodgy form his career has endured.
The forward laboured here on what was largely a stroll for his team, Rooney sinking to Newcastle's level while Ronaldo glided over the dross on show. Ferguson will not be alarmed while opponents are this obliging but the implications for England are more unsettling. On this evidence, the most talented footballer of his generation may not warrant selection against Macedonia on Saturday; by the end, the frustration etched on Rooney's brow suggested he knew as much.
His beard rather gives the impression that he is down on his luck. His body language was occasionally tortured, his distribution relatively shoddy with the one clear opening he chiselled for his team-mates volleyed straight into Steven Taylor's face by Rio Ferdinand. Too often the ball was stuck under feet which normally are a blur. His mood would be lightened by a goal, even a sloppy bundle into an empty net, but, for now, he is gasping in Ronaldo's slipstream.
They may have reconciled but the winger's revival has done little for Rooney, serving to illustrate the current gulf in the pair's confidence. Ronaldo may be wasteful with the numerous free-kicks he insists upon taking, but he is simply unstoppable when offered time or space in which to generate momentum.
THE TELEGRAPH
In a mass display of defiance, Newcastle United's magnificent fans waved their shoes in the air at the end, but Cristiano Ronaldo had already shown them a clean pair of heels. The Portuguese flier was outstanding, creating goals and mayhem in equal measure, and driving Manchester United alongside Chelsea at the top of the Premiership.
All high-speed sorcery, Ronaldo was desperately unlucky not to score, and should have got to keep the woodwork after striking it three times. If Ronaldo erected the gallows for a trembling Toon, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played the executioner, poaching a close-range opener and then being credited with a second after diverting in a drive from Nemanja Vidic.
If the first instinct was to laud Solskjaer for his first home Premiership goals since April 5, 2003, against Liverpool, the longest acclaim must be reserved for Ronaldo. Denigrated as public enemy No 1 following his inelegant antics in getting Wayne Rooney dismissed in Gelsenkirchen, Ronaldo has been persistently impressive since the World Cup.
"It is difficult to say whether what happened in the summer was a defining moment," Sir Alex Ferguson said. "But he was marvellous today. He has been marvellous from the start of the season. He has great courage. I can see that great determination. He's got to keep working hard, which he does do. He has to improve his understanding of the game, which he is doing."
The man who became infamous for a wink has turned a blind eye to all the barbs and brickbats thrown his way, including late challenges from the likes of Steven Taylor, Stephen Carr and Scott Parker. All Newcastle's cautions stemmed from fouls on the irrepressible Ronaldo.
Making light of such heavy-handed attention, and ignoring the Toon Army's whistles of derision, Ronaldo was terrific, evoking memories of his exceptional performance for Portugal against France in Germany. Poor Carr, a decent full-back, was utterly embarrassed here.
So were Newcastle, with only Steve Harper and the tireless Parker escaping censure for what can only be described as a two-goal rout. Newcastle, who have not won here since Edward Heath was at No 10, got their tactics hopelessly wrong, Glenn Roeder electing for caution, swamping midfield, leaving Shola Ameobi isolated up front, and inviting Ronaldo, Paul Scholes and company on to them.
Mistake. Arsenal can play that way, coming here with only Emmanuel Adebayor up front and win, but Arsene Wenger's side possess more creativity and belief in midfield, plus obduracy in defence.