Manchester United won the 144th league derby 2-1. It was, in all obviousness, a much better game than the 143rd one. Just like Tiote’s goal last weekend signaled a deserved draw against Arsenal, Rooney’s “Wondergoal” today deserved to be the ManUtd winner. Both City and Utd started with a striker less and this ensured a congested midfield. Looking at the positions employed by the players, Fletcher flitted to the right while Silva seemed to start on the right but increasingly moved central and left. Yaya marched the right and his duels with Evra were indeed a treat! While Kolarov was pretty inconspicuous on the left flank, very much out of position. An important question is : Did City miss De Jong. His replacement in Milner (though Barry was employed in the De Jong position and Milner in Barry’s) wasn’t really spectacular and was taken off with an injury (he would have been replaced anyhow). However again I repeat-the midfield was too congested to provide any judgment.
The first chance fell to Silva- a wonderful buildup play between Yaya, Tevez and Silva (Giggs playing him onside), which Silva failed to convert. This might be because of his poor scoring record in recent matches. He scored after a really long time against Blackpool last. Actually when the freak City goal was scored, it would be a boost to whoever the goal was credited to (eventually Silva)-Silva because of his bad scoring record, and it would have been Dzeko’s first EPL goal! Utd’s goal broke the deadlock. A fine play through the centre, and especially Nani’s first touch! Here’ it should be remembered that Nani was indeed getting the better of Zabaleta on the right wing a couple of times. Zabaleta had suffered when he was sticking close to him, and had conceded a foul (clip to the ankle). Bottomline-he was being troubled by Nani, and Kolarov wasn’t really helping out,with O’Shea managing some runs down the flank. If one notices carefully, Zabaleta initially moved towards the right corner flag which was opposite to the direction of Nani’s first touch. He probably thought the ball would come to him over Nani’s head. But as a defender one should try to cut Nani off. I am inclined to think a lack of confidence against Nani also contributed to the goal (taking nothing away from the first touch)!
Mancini’s subs were really good ones. A marked difference from substituting Tevez with Milner at home in the 89th minute in the previous match! Dzeko came on for Milner and Wright-Phillips for Kolarov. This helped in one prominent way. Hart had one tall person to fling the balls forward to. Silva moved left but kept wandering in centre. Though City’s goal was a freak one, it was coming because City were improving after the two substitutions. After the goal both teams shifted to the 4-4-2 system with Berba coming on for Anderson. And then the “WonderGoal” happened! City had a couple of half chances- Dzeko hitting one over the bar with a bad first touch but Van der Saar wasn’t worked too much. A good affair with Rooney’s goal being the deserved winner!
A couple of thoughts regarding Chelsea- Liverpool match-
1. Lack of chemistry between Cech-Ivanovic.
2. A failure of the diamond system with Anelka as Trequartista which was successful against a Bramble- Ferdinand defense of Sunderland. Though there was also the Sunderland mentality that they are pretty formidable at home and had defeated Chelsea at the Bridge which made the game more open. Liverpool were very disciplined with Lucas having a wonderful match.
3. Chelsea’s lack of fluidity with a 3 man midfield. Mikel was expected not to be a sole holding player but be a part of a more fluid 3 man midfield. However that not being his original role, he struggled. And Liverpool had two good chances in the first half (including Maxi’s sitter) which were actually created by Liverpool with a sort of overloading in the centre while a cross came in from the left.
4. The Chelsea midfielders had to wait for the wing backs to move forward before they could pass the ball rather than knowing that there would be a Malouda on the left wing.
Finally a thought for Bayern Munich-
Gomez and Mueller have a really bad..BAD..HORRIBLE first touch. Tymoschuk and Badstuber are the present centre backs with Gustavo as left back and Pjanic taking over for Van Bommel. And ROBBERY are back. (don’t know for how long though!)
No comments:
Post a Comment