BLUNDERFUL BARTHEZ
Barthez had what the French would call a 'cauchemar' against the slick Spanish side, storming out of his goal kamikaze-like on two occasions, to present first Sergio in the opening half and then Diego Tristan after the interval with empty nets to fire into and ultimately costing his team the match.
The Deportivo strike force hardly needed much assistance from the recently gaffe-prone French keeper having caused United's shaky defence plenty of problems throughout the 90 minutes, but they were not ones to turn down the generosity of Barthez when his errors gifted them such gilt-edged chances.
The unfortunate Wes Brown - who has scored three own goals in the Premiership and Champions League since August 2000 and was only on the pitch following an injury to Ronnie Johnsen - was involved in both incidents but was faultless on each occasion, as Barthez twice came rushing out to brush him aside only to end up with oeuf on his face.
And these two incidents were by no means isolated ones this season. Following a near immaculate 2000-01 campaign - blighted by one major misjudgement in the FA Cup against West Ham - Barthez's luck is fast running out, with three high-profile mistakes, including Wednesday night's bloopers, leading to opposition goals this term.
Not a keeper to avoid risk-taking, Barthez twice tried to dribble past Blackburn's Corrado Grabbi in their Premiership clash back in August but was robbed of possession, only to see the Italian striker narrowly fail to punish him both times.
Just three weeks later Barthez was picking the ball out of the net after completely misjudging a Rob Lee long-range effort at St James' Park - a significant slip given that only one goal separated the teams at full time.
These slip-ups have naturally and rather significantly affected Barthez's rating on the Opta Index, both in the league and in Europe.
Last term the former Monaco stopper kept a joint-highest 14 clean sheets in the Premiership and conceded just 17 goals - the fewest of any regular 'keeper. In 2001-02 though he has achieved just one shut-out thus far and shipped a dozen goals already - a frequency of one every 45 minutes compared to a goal against every 157 last term - the second worst record in this season's title race.
More alarmingly, Barthez batted away a staggering 82% of opposition shots on target last term which made him the league's best shot-stopper, but has this season been beaten by every other effort on his goal, making him currently the Premiership's worst 'keeper in terms of his saves-to-shots ratio. In fact, even Bo Hansen of Bolton Wanderers has managed to match the Frenchman's record of having stopped 50% of efforts struck from inside the penalty area!
There has been a similar decline in the Champions League this season compared to last for Barthez. He saved 80% of efforts last term facing Europe's elite but has kept out just 67% of shots this term, which is well below average for the competition. And with five strikes beating him he is already halfway towards his tally for the 2000-01 competition with just four games under his belt.
Any more displays like last night, though, and Barthez might not reach double figures for goals against in the 2001-02 Champions League, with the distinct possibility of United going out at the first hurdle.
