[center]Manchester United v Manchester City
Monday 8th April 2013 8pm KO
Live on Sky Sports 1
Referee: Mike Dean
[/center]So the big news of the week was that our neighbours were to invite experts to Old Trafford to try and improve the atmosphere. The experts, 3,000 of them in all will travel from Manchester and be housed in the away end as pilgrims in an unholy land and demonstrate atmosphere whilst 70,000 vermin rifle through their megastore carrier bag filled with tat and count down the minutes until they can board their flights back to their respective Far East countries.
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Forgotten from history as Sky don't show rape[/center]
The build up to this game would have made the North Koreans proud as for red ‘legend’ after ‘legend’ has been rolled out to hail Taggart and his greatness, the media have written more words praising United than a 1950s Russian state ran newspaper on the subject of Stalin and their moronic support have deemed a 15 point lead in April safe enough to come out of the woodwork and bring phone in shows, facebook and twitter to new lows and any form of defence from City fans as bitter blues. George Orwell would be turning in his grave.
Its conveniently forgotten that just last season we rolled up to their place, kicked the back door in and set the place on fire and I doubt they’ll be showing the replay of it in Sky’s build up tonight. That would be City fans living in the past but what odds they show the 5-0 derby win from 1995?
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[/center]To be honest most of me is genuinely not bothered as we’ve been so awful recently unless we play to our very best, something we’ve yet to do this season, then we’ll get turned over and the Rags can prepare their open top tour bus that for no one to attend. Half of me would be happy if we put the reserves out and focused on the FA Cup Semi Final but we have no reserves and there is no chance we’ll be seeing Scott Sinclair in a City shirt. I’m having visions of 2011 when Andy Carroll scored twice against us at Anfield on a Monday night, the world imploded and we wondered for the rest of the week if a manager who had gotten a team to an FA Cup Semi Final could be sacked before we even got to Wembley. I forget how that turned out in the end…
You may have gathered that the Semi Final is my priority (I think because I forfeited a ticket for the Derby so I could go to Wembley) but that doesn’t mean that I am happy to lie down and die for the vermin from across the road. We’ve got the quality to upstage them and for the first time since the first week of the season 20 first teamers are available for selection and we may even have options from the bench. It’s funny how many times I’ve been to the swamp in April when we’ve got nothing to play for when we’ve been awful all season but this time we find ourselves doing it in 2nd place.
Last season I was sick to the stomach at the thought of what Mancini’s team selection might be but on the day he got it spot on; he’s under the same pressure for this game as if we carry too many passengers in the team (by which I mean playing Garcia AND Nasri) then the picnic blanket wearing Rotters will simply overrun as they did for the first 25 minutes in the derby at the Etihad.
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The Potential Heroes[/center]
So with just Rodwell, Richards and Maicon injured Mancini will be comparatively spoilt for choice from our massive squad and the temptation to make changes will be great having surrendered in 2 of our last 3 league away encounters against teams that operate the high press.
Back four will be key and if I was Mancini I would have worked with Clichy for the last 8 days solely on marking his man tightly and blocking their crosses. United’s tactic is put across a barrage of angled crosses across the box as often as possible but if Clichy blocks every single cross then that will be there most significant source of goal stifled. At right back it’s a shame that Micah wasn’t fit in time as I’d have slotted him to and fielded Zabaleta in midfield but if I had to pick one full back in the world it would be him. A shining light in an ultimately disappointing season.
At centre back I would lead the way with Kompany and Nastasic as they both have a history of keeping United centre forwards in their pockets. Failing that I’d select Gerrard Wiekens as he’s had Ruud Van Nistelrooy in his pocket since 2002. Our captain needs to stay on his feet though and not to go lunging in as even though we have a referee who doesn’t care about reputations and would love nothing more than to stick to Whisky Nose he’s a ref who doesn’t care about reputations and has already sent Kompany off this season.
In midfield we’ve seen recently how ineffective Gareth Barry can be against the high press especially when Nasri and/or Garcia have played. If I’m picking the team I would go for a 3 man central midfield of Milner, Yaya (he’s leaving don’t you know) and I would probably still pick Barry as I wouldn’t fancy watching Garcia try to ‘screen’ United’s midfield. Naturally this leaves us with the best player in the league in Silva who I’d play in a free role on either side just to watch the best young right back in the league umpalumpa Rafael get subbed after 20 minutes and Evra get the same treatment that Trevor Sinclair gave him.
Up front that leaves us with the 2nd and 3rd best players in the league Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez to lead the line with the aim of bettering last seasons result. We have the option of playing Aguero on the right to give us the width or we can play Tevez in midfield and have Milner on the right to work the line with Zabba which has been the most effective form of width this season. If I’m picking the team I might be tempted to play Augero on the right as Duncan Edwards and Wio will be too afraid to try and kick lumps out of Herman.
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The Opposition
As graceful in defeat as always[/center]
How to discuss a team who’s fan base genuinely believe Tom Cleverley is better than David Silva???
They’ll be solid in the centre of midfield, lightning fast on the wings, dangerous up front but the derby at home showed that if we put them under pressure their defence is hilariously pedestrian and parts like the red sea when stretched (source: Reading Away). Dzeko should be first substitute to come on if behind.
[center]Prediction
[/center]Everyone is playing play for a Wembley spot, even the captain, and Mancini should have no difficulty in motivating the players. Players like Nasri need to know that things like work rate, effort and visibly trying go a lot further in derbies than they do in other games should he get near that pitch (he’ll probably start now) and that he is in debt to the support for the original match. The last time the odds were so against us we showed them up on the biggest day in their history.
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To all City fans going tonight watch your backs as these morons target people on their own, women and children and will be waiting outside the away end afterwards. 70,000 vermin!
2-0 City
