Jones. To be honest I think we have a pretty good balance of CBs right now. Vidic and Smalling are both powerful and good in the air, and Rio and Jones are both skilled ball players and good on the deck. Evans is also quite powerful and good in the air, although lacking concentration at times and not great on the floor. I'd be happy to pair Vidic or Smalling with Rio or Jones. But with Vidic out and Smalling at RB we don't have the right balance - Rio and Jones together leaves us too vulnerable in the air (see the Basle and Stoke games) and Evans has done well this season, but can't cope with handling a top quality attacker like Balotelli or Aguero for a full 90 minutes. So I would have preferred to see Rio and Smalling at CB today, with Evans or even a partially fit Fabio at RB. I think we'd have done better with that combo, but then that's hindsight!
United will recover from today's debacle. The question should be will they truly learn from it? All of the previous assumptions - having a strong defence with plenty of cover, not requiring a firm midfield, that pace out wide will overcome, etc. etc. now have to be revisited and tested. That's not a panic measure. It is a necessary part of the long term planning process. The biggest problem will be how far tradition has seeped into the foundations of the club. Every Liverpool supporter will tell you that when we began to slide, each set back was met with "well it happens/a bad day at the office. We are Liverpool and we will come back stronger - because we always have". If that is allowed to happen at United then we will see a gradual decline. Don't say it can't happen/ we're different because your not. The culture that has served you so well for the last 15 years can become your greatest enemy.
We will learn as we have been through similar before. Over the years we have changed and adapted our game to allow us to compete. In the 90's we played fast flowing attacking football in all games regardless. Now we have totally different game plans for europe to what we have for the majority of league games. I can see us adapting our European tactics for games against the big PL teams now. Other than 2 defeats to Barcelona we have a stupidly good Champions League record and its down to how we set up. We have beaten most of the worlds best teams playing this way and it would make sense to use it in the big PL games. I will say though, after todays result if we do win the league it will make it a little bit sweater as we have basically been written off by loads and as every man who enjoys the benefit of water knows.......you just dont do that. Its 5 ****ing points. A month from now City could draw 2 games and pick up a defeat and bang, people will start writing them off. City can be proud of today but the fact of the matter is, if they dont win the league the 6-1 thrashing means **** all in the cold light of day.
if it was just a one off i think utd will go on a decent run - my concern for them was they way they seemed to give up (some of them) - if you watch the goals again, city were allowed to walk the ball in to the net
Well the last time we lost at home we went 18 months undefeated. Its something like 10 years ( correct me if wrong ) with 1 or 2 defeats at home in europe. These things are almost always a one off shock result and we get them every now and again. newcastle 5-0 Chelsea 5-0 Southampton 6-3 Liverpool 4-1 Milan 3-0 Fulham 3-0 City 4-1 & 6-1 As you can see we have a few terrible results but these got back like 15 years or so. The next one will be a few season from now lol.
Just took a look at our fixtures. 29 Oct Barclays Premier League Everton A 12:00 November 2011 02 Nov UEFA Champions League Otelul Galati H 19:45 05 Nov Barclays Premier League Sunderland H 15:00 19 Nov Barclays Premier League Swansea City A 17:30 22 Nov UEFA Champions League Benfica H 19:45 26 Nov Barclays Premier League Newcastle United H 15:00 December 2011 03 Dec Barclays Premier League Aston Villa A 17:30 07 Dec UEFA Champions League FC Basel A 19:45 10 Dec Barclays Premier League Wolves H 15:00 18 Dec Barclays Premier League Queens Park Rangers A 12:00 21 Dec Barclays Premier League Fulham A 20:00 26 Dec Barclays Premier League Wigan H 15:00 31 Dec Barclays Premier League Blackburn H 12:45 January 2012 04 Jan Barclays Premier League Newcastle United A 20:00 14 Jan Barclays Premier League Bolton H TBC We can and should win every single game. 36 points before we get to the arsenal game in january? If we get 30+ we will be right up there.
I admire your defence of where United are at. I said a lot earlier that I was going to resist the the temptation to wum and I'm sticking to that. There are times in the existance of all organisations when calamities happen. In football it is generally when things go badly wrong just like yesterday. When that does happen you can take a number of stances. Perhaps one of them is to merely rely upon your history and automatically assume that it will be the same this time.
Well yeah, but we look at pretty much all of our games as 'coulds' and 'shoulds', but as we know, it doesn't work out that way. City will be looking at their fixtures with the same attitude, as will Chelsea, Tottenham etc.
None of those have really been from teams at the top of the league though. The Liverpool one is the closest, but even then United remained at the top at full time. Sunday's was between the two top sides, and City opened up a bit of a gap. It's a different thing psychologically to lose heavily to 1) your city rivals and 2) a team that then stretches their lead over you than to lose heavily to someone 3 or 4 places lower who cant really overtake you.
I think people are missing the point. SAF will not really be overly concerned about the 5 point lead at this stage, after all its not the end of October yet. Utd have overhauled many leads in the past and to be honest City will have hiccups if not falls between now and the end of the season. I think the potential problem for SAF is simply the score line and the shock of it. If he rallies his players and kicks a few into line, then Man Utd will be fine. If they feel sorry for themselves and fail to react, then the title could be City's to throw away. Saying that, its only one defeat albeit a bad score line in a derby match. Titles are not decided in October.
I know the result was a one off, however, the performance and a deserved defeat wasn't. Just look at the last few games for utd and how most people thought they were lucky to get away with any points at all. MOTD etc have now jumped on the fact that utd are allowing opposing teams far too many chances but I have been saying it since very early on in the season (and been mocked for it). The fact is the defence and centre mid is not really strong enough to cope with the all out attack mode that utd play when at their best. Having said all that, Utd are clearly capable of turning that round and going on a long winning run, but either way people writing utd off are just nuts.
I couldn't believe what I was watching. Good goals as well. Nice to see them all walking out.........................AGAIN
I totally agree with that. But to be honest I really can't see City having many hiccups along the way, whereas I can see Utd and Chelsea having a fair few. True that a title can't be decided in October - I just feel with the superior squad City have if Mancini can hold his nerve they have an amazing chance to win it. But (and a big but), I don't see Mancini being a strong enough character to hold a squad like that together. Interesting season ahead thats for sure.
You know I did. I'm owed five pints as a direct result. I cou'dn't claim them yesterday - too far gone.
