I've never liked this assertion that we have a squad full of "winners", because for me, we haven't had for a long while now. We've had a manager who can make his players look like a team of winners through his own success and demand for that to continue.
For me, we have no more than a few players who've shown they're made of the right stuff mentally when it matters. Rooney, Rafael, Jones and maybe Janujaz...and the later two have only shown it this season. The rest are largely a bunch of complete fannies, to be honest. They either play like they have nothing to prove to anyone, or they panic and don't possess the ability to play with any semblence of thought or intelligence.
For example, so far this season, we've had on pitch sulking/moping around from Nani and Van Persie, hiding and shirking of responsibility from the likes of Fellaini, Welbeck and Young, constant panicking from Cleverley and Smalling, and worst of all, payers like Rio, who are supposed to be an example, putting in ridiculously casual displays, costing their team the game, and then trying to get away with doing the exact same again the very next week.
Silly errors and lazy use of the ball being repeated week after week from Rio, Vidic, Carrick, etc. One or two who can't even be bothered with the bare basics like getting themselves in shape. You look at when the likes of Keane were around (and I know that's almost a cliche now), and it would never have been accepted as a standard, regardless of who the manager was. It'd be what you do when you want to retire, get shouted at a lot by your team mates, or if you wanted to go and play for Sunderland.
The thing with Fergie is, he could pick a ridiculously retarded line up, and half the time they'd still drag out a win despite playing like a bunch of spazzers...No other manager could get away with doing that, but Fergie had something no other manager can have. He had the desire and demand from himself, but also backed up by the assurance of being so succesful for so long. He couldn't get away with it himself back in 2001 or 2004, because the question marks would still be there when he did something silly.
I've lost patience with the sorry lot now. I thought they were getting their act together, but then you look at tonight, and Cardiff just over a week ago, and the evidence suggests very much otherwise. Ultimately it's the manager's job to sort them out, but whoever the manager is, the players will have to stand up and be counted themselves rather than try to hide behind the strength of someone else. Either that or a lot of them are going to end up being mid table chancers, one way or another.
At least some random quote site (