Manchester City 4-1 Manchester United: What a farce!

Nothing goes right for David Moyes and his men on the night. Moyes send out the wrong team on the night where he (and City’s Manuel Pellegrini) needs to prove himself. To add to that Moyes also sends out the wrong message, is he back to his Everton’s days mentality once a game of this magnitude comes around?
David Moyes’ Everton used to be one of the team that managed to beat Manchester City over the last few seasons quite convincingly despite the big disparity in budgets. Moyes would make his Everton players played defensively, crowd the midfield and put a lot of attention in set pieces, both offensively and defensively. Last night supporters witness this display – except that it is the Manchester United’s supporters and we are all not accustomed to this display, United is a team that attacks and strikes fear into oppositions and not passing the ball around aimlessly for the sake of possession!

 

It is the right decision to start Maroune Fellaini and Michael Carrick in the centre of the midfield, after all City’s midfield lead by Yahya Toure and Fernandinho is one of the most effective around and on the derby night they proved themselves. Manchester United’s midfield however never shows up to count themselves as United’s players. For all Wayne’s Rooney’s good form he never gets the decisive pass and was isolated together with Danny Welbeck up front. Fellaini and Carrick can be a potent midfielder pairing but they are not out and out creative playmakers. Most of the nights the passing have been from left to right and vice versa without having the sense of effective decision making. And when the ball does goes to the wings, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia was unable to provide the quality crosses that City was producing on the other end. Antonio Valencia can be devastating but also one-dimensional too, his style is too predictable – speed and strength. Close him down and he will ‘wither’. Valencia also did not have to ability to cut infield and make damages like how Cristiano Ronaldo or Gareth Bale can. Of United players, Nani and Shinji Kagawa are the ones that can play in that direction. Therefore when City’s fullbacks were playing well both United’s wingers struggle, with Patrice Evra having to make blind crosses from time to time. Young on the other hand was too over-rated by David Moyes and his inclusion on big games so far this season has fans questioning Moyes ability to select the right team for big and important games.

 

Defensively Manchester United was outrightly poor. Maybe the games week in and week out have taken a toll on players like Rio Ferdinand. For the last two games Ferdinand was poor given his abilities as a world class centre backs. Nemanja Vidic was equally unimpressive but compare to Ferdinand, Vidic was not in the frame for most of the 6 goals conceded. Time after time it was Ferdinand who failed to mark the last opposition player before the goals. Sir Alex Ferguson’s tactic was to rotate the centre back, with one experience player (Ferdinand or Vidic) with either Jonny Evans or Phil Jones/ Chris Smalling and this works. But Moyes had been using Vidic-Ferdinand for the all the games this season and his mismanagement on this matter was very glaringly obvious.

 

The continuingly omission of Shinji Kagawa is puzzling to Manchester United’s fans. Unlike Juan Matta (who is poor defensively), Kagawa is a player not only with creative sense but also a good work rate. Even player like Nani is always willing to track back but maybe not to good outcome sometimes. Ashley Young is a pacey winger and was brought to United by Alex Ferguson mainly because of his assists counts – and he is English. At United, especially this season, Young provided none of those abilities. Not only is he embroiled in diving controversy Young is also guilty of losing possession on many occasions, and his penetration when having the ball is of poor quality – to sum it up Young is rather indecisive leading to wrong decisions make and losing possessions. On the derby night as well as at Anfield, Young makes David Moyes looks like a novice in one of the biggest job in club football.

 

United basically started the game looking like a team not willing to pass the ball higher than their own half and instead contented to pass from left to right. In other words – full of indecision but this is just a sign of confidence – the lack of it. Neither Carrick or Fellaini was able to exert any authority on their oppositions and with Danny Welbeck too high up the pitch there was no one to provide the links to Wayne Rooney. If the intention was for Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia to be given the ball and make crosses into the box, then Fellaini-Carrick have not being effective at all.

 

A derby thrashing is one of the worst any football fans have to endured and in this case, Moyes and Manchester United have let the fans down big time – even though this is rather early on the season. One positive United fans can hope for is the Moyes and the team will learn from this and kick on from here with a streak of good performance.