Special Needs

And so we come to this weekend’s main attraction, the 152nd edition of a derby that officially began back on October 3rd 1891. Over the intervening 118 years United and City have locked horns over relegation, a few Cup semi-finals and once or twice they’ve feuded over the championship but all of a sudden money has made this fixture seem like the most important of the lot.

Talk to a blue and they’ll dismiss United as yesterday’s team, convinced that the future is theirs. This ignores City’s long history of comical failure which there simply isn’t enough space on the internet to record. It also ignores United’s ability to win leagues and cups when they’ve not played particularly well or spent a spectacular amount of money.

Nevertheless, for City supporters ignorance is bliss, what lies ahead is an assault on the Top 4, probably at the expense of Arsenal or (please God) Liverpool, a few attempts to get the ball rolling in the Champions League and a first league title for nearly half a century sometime early in the next decade.

As a result, we’ve been told not to set too much store by this weekend’s result – unless City win of course and then there will be joy unconfined, commemorative videos, tea-cups and T-shirts and a lap of honour around Stockport by the Abu Dhabi royal family. A United win will be regarded as the last kick of a dying order before Ferguson, Giggs and Scholes retire.

The thing is, they may have a point. I don’t neccessarily buy the belief that money buys success, it’s only had moderate success at Chelsea for example, but it does engender a confidence that makes success possible. 18 months ago we were all grinning like Cheshire cats as City stood on the precipice. Now they’re in danger of thinking they can actually win something there will be no stopping the open top bus tours and the tickertape parades.

The belief that the arabs have engendered is dangerous and must be stopped and the quickest way out of this mess is to adminster a hammering so bad that they’ll think twice about darkening our city again. So let’s turn up on Sunday boys and play like there’s no tomorrow, because for reds there may not be one…

transition

The word ‘transition’ is a comfort blanket to most, a state of flux that some teams never seem to break out of (see Arsenal). It is a cliched expression that can be an all too convenient excuse for some. So are Manchester United in transition or have they successfully travelled through the transitional period and emerged stronger for the experience.

Saturday’s performance at Spurs seemed to be a turning point. United lost an early goal and went down to ten men but emerged with a 3-1 win at the league leaders. Tottenham were up for it, ‘Arry got them playing on the front foot and got a goal head start before United knew what had hit them. A team in transition would have folded and blamed a missing star or foreign system for the adversity but not this current United team. In the end they wiped the floor with Spurs, Redknapp admitted that they’d been humiliated later, which was a bit harsh, but United controlled matters after the first 15 minutes.

Playing 4-4-2 used to be the default setting in the Premiership. With Ronaldo in the team however we didn’t need to play ‘open’, with a player that good (a striker and a winger rolled into one) we could leave everybody else on defensive duty and let the Portuguese plunder the goals. This explains our outstanding defensive record but also our often dull football last term when players were used to passing the buck.

There’s no doubt that without him we are likely to see a more stretched team but we may will also see the best of a number of individuals previously thought purely defensive. Rooney is one example but Anderson showed that his youtube highlights aren’t a figment of a feverish Brazilian imagination. He got forward, linked well with the front men and looked a different player to the anonymous teenager we saw in Rome back in May.

The main casualty of this new style would appear to be Michael Carrick who is widely perceived to lack the pace and aggression to play in a midfield four. Carrick seems to have been made a scapegoat for the Barca defeat where he didn’t look like transforming United’s fortunes once they fell behind.

Darren Fletcher by contrast has become our most consistent player. Super Fletch has developed into one of the best midfielders in Europe (can’t believe I’m writing that!) his passing, tackling, aggression and will-to-win reminiscent of Roy Keane in his pomp. The only thing he lacks in comparison to the Irishman is perhaps the ruthless hard man image. But his ability to pull United back into games has been a feature so far this season and we would have fared better in Rome had he been available. Iniesta and Xavi would have had something to think about at the very least.

It’s clear that United have been transistion (I suppose we all have) and, domestically at least, we seem to have come through the other side a stronger unit. United are more of a collective without Ronaldo and the form of Rooney in particular is a source of joy. When/if he gets injured (it’s inevitable) then we need to see Berbatov step up. He’s threatened on occasion this season, perhaps Saturday’s visit of City will see him turn it on.

City have made a great start and the giddy-o-meter is off the scale. The defeat of Arsenal showed them at their counter-attacking best and their defence and goalkeeper withstood a lot of pressure from the Gunners. Yet the blues are yet to fall behind this season and City tend not to cope with adversity too well – traditionally preferring to fail comically than heroically stage a comeback – so it will be interesting to see how they cope with going a goal down.
Should the two teams play to form, Saturday’s derby could be a classic.