With
the Champions League out of the way, both Manuel Pellegrini and David Moyes are
set to clash head on for this Sunday’s Manchester derby. Both teams sit on 7 points,
3 behind the surprise league leader – Liverpool (yes, the permanent residence
from midtable!). What will this derby means for both teams?
Last year fixture was a cracker with Manchester United edging City 3-2 right at the whistle with a Robin Van Persie freekick and that must has hurt the City boys. But last season City was off song with internal squabbles dominating headlines after headines. Since then City has sacked manager Roberto Mancini and replace him with ‘Mr Calm’ Pellegrini – supposedly to help deal with City’s dressing room big egos. As with football clubs with sudden influx of foreign funds, the egos of players will become a liability once the club tasted instant success. Players will come to think of themselves as bigger than the team and expect the kind of treatment afforded to players of exceptional qualities – the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. However in a football club environment there are probably more than 20 players and imagine even half of that becomes highly egoistic!
Last year fixture was a cracker with Manchester United edging City 3-2 right at the whistle with a Robin Van Persie freekick and that must has hurt the City boys. But last season City was off song with internal squabbles dominating headlines after headines. Since then City has sacked manager Roberto Mancini and replace him with ‘Mr Calm’ Pellegrini – supposedly to help deal with City’s dressing room big egos. As with football clubs with sudden influx of foreign funds, the egos of players will become a liability once the club tasted instant success. Players will come to think of themselves as bigger than the team and expect the kind of treatment afforded to players of exceptional qualities – the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. However in a football club environment there are probably more than 20 players and imagine even half of that becomes highly egoistic!
This
season however has seen both the Manchester clubs having decent starts.
Results were not impressive for both. City on their part despite doing their
summer transfer business early, were not anyway near as slicks with their new
signings. Much of City’s plays are still centre around existing squad of Sergio
Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Yahya Toure and Vincent Kompany. At United, David Moyes
meanwhile had a forgettable transfer summer and with only Marouane Fellaini
arriving to the first team, looks set to rely on the title winning squad he
inherited from Sir Alex Ferguson.
For
Manchester United the core of the team after five games looks set to centre
around De Gea, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick,
Robin Van Persie, Wayne Rooney and most likely new signing Maroune Fellaini.
Other highly rated players like Danny Welbeck, Shinji Kagawa, Tom Cleverly,
Nani, Antonio Valencia, Anderson, Ashley Young and Javier Hernandez are mostly
likely to be rotated to David Moyes’ fancy, depending on the nature and type of
games involve.
At
this point of the season, expect both Manchester United and City to adopt the
attacking games. In David Moyes’ case it is ‘compulsory’ for keeping with United’s
ways of playing football unless the Moyes’ Everton days’ mindset kicks in. In
Manuel Pellegrini however City may choose to adopt the sit-and-wait games
preferring to counter-attack only when there is opportunity. With both teams
sitting on level points it is essential for a win to keep pace with the early
pace setters Liverpool and Arsenal. On top of that there is the Manchester
derby bragging rights up for grab!
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