MAN CITY 2 – 3 Manchester United – MY THOUGHTS
10 Dec
It was the inevitability which was so crushing. The second Carlos Tevez gave away a free-kick for clipping Rafael’s legs, it was obvious what was going to happen. That, however, didn’t dim the feelings of despondency and disappointment when the ball nestled in the net.
It was an unfair ending to what, for the neutral, may well have been a pulsating affair. For a supporter, it was tense and nerve-wracking, but few could argue that City didn’t deserve at least a share of the spoils. Having controlled possession for the majority of the game and having deservedly fought back from two goals down, the Blues’ overall performance arguably merited the three points but the fact that Manchester United scored their third goal from their third shot on target highlighted the key difference between the side: City were profligate, United were clinical.
As has been the case on too many occasions already during this campaign, our problem was creating and then scoring chances. We had plenty of possession in midfield, dictating the tempo of the game as United waited to counter-attack but that ingenuity, that attacking spark was absent in the first half. We passed the ball around prettily but there wasn’t a directness or purpose about our play until after the break.
That change in attitude and output has been credited to the introduction of Carlos Tevez and I’d have to agree. His initial omission was surprising even though Roberto Mancini’s thinking was understandable, but the Argentinean incontestably provided that hunger and battling spirit which was necessary to claw our way back into the game. He dovetailed superbly with Sergio Aguero, their ability to find space for one other impressive and we looked a more cohesive team unit in the second half.
However, and this brings me to the main talking point post-match, that doesn’t mean Mario Balotelli was poor. His performance has been vilified in today’s papers by journalists who, rather than attempt any real analysis of the game, take the lazy option and focus on Balotelli. Jamie Jackson in the Guardian described the Italian’s performance as “close-to-hopeless” whilst Ollie Holt in the Mirror thought the striker was “utterly ineffectual, distracted, fitful and fretful … and that City had effectively been forced to play with 10 men.” And the less said about Steven Howard’s bile-filled, vitriolic piece in the Sun, the better. What absolute nonsense.
The reality is the Balotelli was one of, if not the, liveliest attacking sparks in the first half. His pace, direct running, touch and strength caused a number of problems for United’s backline and it was his speed in behind their defence which looked our most likely route of scoring. Yes, he tried a couple of flicks too many and that infuriated Roberto Mancini but at least he tried to move the ball on quickly, rather than take too many touches in possession and slow down our tempo, as was the case with so many others.
The negative vibe in the ground was startling towards him, as if many fans have turned against him because of who he is, rather than what he produces. Of course, he doesn’t help himself at times with his questionable attitude and lack of workrate, but those at the ground should be able to realise how good he is off the ball when City are in possession. Sadly, our tactics don’t play to his strength.
When you watch him for Italy, you realise just how effective he can be. His searing pace enables him to get beyond the opposition defence and with Andrea Pirlo picking him out early with balls over the top to exploit the space, he is lethal. Unfortunately, we don’t play that way. At the Etihad Stadium, it is clear that his movement is terrific. There were countless times in the first half when he (and Sergio Aguero) made darts over the top as United’s defence pushed up, but our tempo was so laboured that no-one found those runs. And that is when Balotelli gets frustrated. He is flawed yet there is an expectation for him to be flawless.
One other player who was most certainly flawed yesterday was Samir Nasri, his inexcusable cowardice playing a huge role in City losing the game. Had he had the courage and bravery to stand in the wall and not hide behind Edin Dzeko, we would have gained a point from the game. Instead, his gutless decision resulted in Van Persie’s free-kick, which was not a great attempt, deflecting off Nasri’s boot and into the corner. It was a cruel, avoidable way to lose the game and the Frenchman should take a look at himself and decide whether he has the courage to be a top footballer. It was a spineless act.
Otherwise, it was a decent City performance. The character and spirit to come back from two goals down was admirable, even if that is perhaps lost amidst the anger of conceding such a late goal, but the most important aspect now is to bounce back. This defeat hurts but it will make future success that bit sweeter. We have leaders in the squad and the ability to return to the top of the table. Should we start clicking as an attacking force, we shall be very difficult to stop.
View From A Blue is delighted to offer an exclusive promotion for readers! Banc De Binary, the global leader in binary options trading, is offering a 100% sign-up bonus for us Blues. No fees, no commissions, and up to 500% profit in 1 trade. Start trading today or try a free $50,000 demo account. Claim your 100% sign-up bonus here!
Love how you just ignored the fact we had a perfectly good goal ruled out at 2-0, 3-0 is game over. Also a big pen shout turned down (graham poll and my city supporting friends/family thought it was a pen). So to say it was an unfair result is blinkered.
Overall I thought both teams played well and could have gone either way. We conceded again from a set piece and Nasri let you down. Agree that Balotelli wasn’t as poor as made out to be
I’m surprised the author didn’t mention the referee halting play after YaYa was clean though having rode three challenges but I’m not surprised you didn’t mention it.
Welll you right the advantage could have been played but you dont seem to notice the fact that referee had blowed his whistle after the first challenge itself . United also dint get the rub of the green with the penalty and more importantly the offside goal.
That’s the point! Appalling refereeing; non of the players knew the whistle had been blown. What is the point in blowing up early? What is the benefit? Oh, and it was the penultimate foul he blew up on, not the first.
What I’m saying is that these things happen – both teams got decisions for and against.
What about the blatant handball by cleverly that was’nt seen and Rooneys two bad tackles in the first ten mins should have been a booking.
Sorry this is a really sad article from a totally biadsed blue .
Three shots …….united actually scored four goals , from three shots ???
United had a stonewall penalty tuned down , If the third goal had been allowed the city
Counter attack would not have taken place, they would have had to start from kick off CENTER with united back in position .
Sorry this guy is clutching at straws , fergie said that if ballotelli played he would devastate our defence that could not cope with high balls into him . Fergie knew cities best attack is the two argentines , sorry your manager was led up the garden path by simple mind games ,
It is a city website, you’d expect bias, wouldn’t you???
Lol you probably also credited Fergie with “mind games” when he wrongly stated City get more penalties than United
Yes David, three shots on target – oh, you’re now including shots where the linesman had already raised his flag (incorrectly I admit) for offside? Do keep up.
“If the third goal had been allowed”. How about if Rooney had been sen off after 10 minutes fo two yellows? How about if you got a penalty and Rooney missed it? How about if my Auntie had nuts etc etc.
Look, a great game, one of the best derbies I’ve witnessed (apart from the result) and Utd got a lucky break at the end. That is all.
By the way, you actually think Mancini heard Fergie say he was worried about Ballotelli and picked him on this basis? You actually think this was the case?
There was a 4th United goal ashley young wrongly disallowed ! Im old enough and wise enough to be able to read and take on board points raised by even MCCC fans . Please get your facts right .The official stats gave us nine attempts .
Three ON TARGET!!!!!
I have never liked Nasri in our team and he should be dropped with immediate effect. Tevez and Hart must also shoulder a little blame for their 3rd goal, however, taking Nasri out of the equation, Clichy – who mightily impresses me – why oh why didn’t he just launch the ball into the 3rd tier! If he had, it would no doubt have ended a draw and we would have got the point we AT LEAST deserved.
What really concerns me at the moment though is the lack of goals from our “goal scorers” what on earth is going on?
I still think we will catch Salford but it would have been so much easier if we could do the simple things simply!
All the traffs whinging about the penalty that never was. What about wiggy hanging on to nasties arm for a corner? Not that the fat weetabix wearer should have been on the pitch, should have been sent off after the first 5 minutes.
Right as Tevez made that foul I was sick to my stomach and seeing the headlines already. And I definitely agree about Nasri too, just doesn’t really impact the game enough for me.
Awful ending, but we’ve come back before. Keep believing
City should have been 3-0 down before they scored!!! Classic United, soak up the pressure and hit hard on the break. Fergie was happy to concede possession – City are hardly Barcelona.
yeah but utd are hardly madrid, so we are happy for u to play that way against us. Its just not worked out this time, but i believe the future will paint a different story
for all the reds complaining about the ‘goal’ , if the ref had played advantage when toure was clear he would have scored , also when evra was fouling tevez but he stayed on his feet should have been a penalty . rooney dragged nastasic down by the arm at a corner , another penalty , when zabaleta scored you can see dzeko’s shirt around his chest its being pulled that much another penalty had we not scored. mancini played balotelli because he made utd look like mugs in the 6-1 at the meccano set last year.
The loss was the result of a few short-comings and no single player should be blamed for it. The fact that City went 2 – 0 down and then United goal was disallowed would make what Nasri did insignificant [though his coward ducking is inexcusable]. We should have not been in that situation in the first place. Below is what I personally think went wrong:
1- Balloteli’s selection over Tevez’s was baffling esp when he worked his socks off in the past few games and he was one of the star players. Though super-mario had a decent performance but Bobby got this one wrong. You never bench a player who is on fire.
2- Take Rooney and Van persi out, United is a mid-table team at best. Knowing Rooney playing as an Attacking midfielder right behind Van persi, Our DM should have done a man-to-man marking of Rooney. Unfortunately, neither Barry nor Yaya are Box-to-Box midfielders and neither of those have the pace nor the stamina to keep up with Rooney.
3- Not sure why we signed Garcia and Rodwell, the combined value of both could have payed for a top player that could actually make a difference.
mid table team indeed. how many times will this be repeated over the last 2 decades, huh? its becoming boring already
It might have been said a million times over the last two decades. But it does not change the fact that, this United is a far cry from a team they were when the likes of Scholes, Gigs and Ronaldo, etc were at their prime. Unfortunately, Your prejudice has blinded you to see the writings on the wall.
Take the best 2 players out of the City squad and you have a team that flops miserably in Europe 2 years in a row – oh hang on! You muppet.
It took United 5 years to only qualify from group stages when Sir Alex took over.
I only saw the Nasri incident in detail on the box today – sickening in all sorts of ways.
I was sat right behind the away dug out yesterday instead of my usual s/t place in the middle tier and I have to say the period of the game a few minutes before our equaliser until the RVP free kick was a period which I remember thinking at the time was football at it’s best – two of the country’s best two teams slugging it out; counter attacking each other. I think it was being behind the dug out made you feel right in the middle of the bear pit, close to the players and you just knew football fans across the globe were watching. It was a privilege, particularly as we watched Zabelata approach the ball on his way to rattling it home – you could feel 90% of the stadium roaring him towards it.
Excellent stuff. Took me back to childhood games like Spurs at home in the FA Cup Qtr final in ’93 on an uncomfortably packed Kippax and Sheron nodded us one nil up.
In a strange way I feel more confident of staging a come back in the league than before – assuming we react in the right manner. I’m deffo not as sick as compared with the 3-4 at OT.
One final point. I thought Balotelli was a disgrace last night, however on seeing the highlights he did make some meaningfull contributions and I may have been harsh. One issue I beg to offer on is that there were a couple of instances where he did refuse to run off the ball (ie for Silva in first half by the right corner flag) and this contributed to the appearance of a lack of ‘caring/effort’. The difference when Tevez came on merely emphasised this.
Having said all that I expect some sort of apology from Nasri now – although due to his appeared surliness I doubt it!!
I have to agree with most of what you’ve said, it isnt lost on me either what a great game it was even though we lost. When Balotelli decides hes not making a run, he does it in such a way that it appears he doesnt care. As its already been pointed out Balotelli wasnt as half as bad as people are making out but one of his main issues yesterday is that him coming off and tevez on has coincided with a much improved performance. When it came to the starting of balotelli though, like a united fan suprisingly and accurately put today, its a 90 minute game and you dont show all your cards at the start. Meaning that Tevez coming on and being able to have such an impact and cover as much ground as he did is largely down to the fact he was fresh and he knows he only has 1 half to play. I think its brave of the author to suggest he was one of the better players in the first half considering the nonesense ive heard and read, especially considering much of it has come from our own fans.
Most of the non-sense around super-mario comes from rag-infested, anti-city media. Balloteli is a good player much like Dezko. Our team should learn to play to their strengths. He has excellent runs behind defense and can be a night-mare to any defense provided our midfield can provide a decent service.
What is disappointing is that a lot of folks are focusing on Balo and Nasri [whom I think did the inexcusable] while forgetting that our DM failed to track Rooney. We truly need at least one top box-to-box midfielder and a top class winger who can put some decent crosses into the box.
Agree with our second para. So annoying and seemed a mistake at the time let alone now. If Barry is out then the only midfielder in the squad who can tackle is Milner yet even when fit Mancini doesn’t fancy him. We need the graft as well as the guile – we miss De Jong badly.
De Rossi (if the purse strings can be loosened) may be th answer but I fear by the time he is available he will have lot his legs!
Oh, a winger would be great. Adam Johnson may have had his faults (poor starter; beloved his own hype; couldn’t tackle) yet he proved many times he could come on in the 2nd half, add a different dimension and change the course of a game. I know for a fact Sinclair was Johnson’s replacement as Mancini prefers players who can track back over and above flair going forward.
Now we don’t have that option other than Dzeko to add height. I’m just not sure what wingers are available.
fair enough for backing balo but he skied a big chance from clichy’s cross in first half. needs to score them. we are still excusing him too much re: poor workrate/shite tackling because he has undoubted talent. tevez changed it but as someone said on a forum he may also not have been firing on all cylinders in the first half.
yes we had possession early but it wasnt the type of sustained pressure that hurts teams. in that respect, im afraid fergie got it right because he realised we’d have the play but at our usual, slower and not particularly penetrative pace.
nasri, uurgh.
as for united’s ‘goal’ and ‘pen’; Young supposedly being onside is extremely easy to misjudge in real time; and atkinson was wary of giving cheap fouls and pens due to recent furore around diving. so again, understandable.
1) I simply hate to watch players, who are clearly unable to dedicate themself to the club and since sunday game I recognizes Nasri as that kind of player. If he cannot even push himself to endure in the wall and get hit by the ball then how much he is giving on the pitch ? Just enough to be left in the squad and gather his 120K salary without troubling himself too much ? I would rather watch worse player than Nasri, but who is giving his best to the team and you can see/feel this.
2) Negative atmosphere and press around Ballotelli have already overgrown to such extension that no matter what Ballotelli do – he will always be the one to blame. That is why I think that it is impossible for him now to succeed in England. The only way for him to trigger his incredible abbilities is to leave MCI, change the club and start over. Best in Italy in a club where he will have always a place in starting 11, support of the fans and the preasure will be of him.
3) I love the fact that rags fans are actually writting replies here just to challenge your article.
Finally a fan in posession of intelligence who has not jumped on to the Anti Mario bandwagon, thought this was some of our best play of the season, hopefully this loss could actually be what we need to get going.
I also think this was the best play of our season and the loss was more to bad luck than our play. Let’s hope this was a sign that City is back to its best form.