Manchester City face Manchester United tonight in what many are billing as the title decider. What are the key decisions the managers will have to make?
Whichever team does not get the desired result tonight, their fans and manager will no doubt use hindsight to question whether their choices were right.
Do the teams pick themselves? Not quite. Here are five important decisions the bosses face.
1) Does Rooney lead the line or play behind Welbeck?
Sir Alex Ferguson faces a tricky choice as to whether to play two strikers or one. Of course if Welbeck starts, Rooney will drop deep, into the midfield when United do not have the ball, and this served the side well when United beat City 3-2 in the FA Cup. However Yaya Toure missed that game, and City played the majority with 10 men, so it can hardly be trusted when it comes to an indicator of what to come. If United opt for an extra midfielder to combat Toure and co. Welbeck will drop to the bench and Rooney will be asked to play up front on his own.
2) Tevez and Aguero up top, with Balotelli on the bench?
Has Carlos Tevez earned the right to start against his former club? Surely the answer is yes. His partnership with Aguero has yielded 12 goals in three games and logic would say disrupting it would be foolhardy. Roberto Mancini has been a reformed character this year with his tactics, preferring to attack rather than be more conservative, and fans will hope he does not slip back into old habits here and play one up front. Mario Balotelli’s availability also injects an unpredictability into proceedings. He has so often been selected as first choice this season, but will surely have to make do with a place on the bench here.
3) Rafael, Smalling, Jones, or Valencia?
Rafael da Silva has had United’s right-back spot seemingly sewn up in recent weeks, but reports have suggested that Sir Alex has made him the scapegoat for United conceding four at Everton. So with that in mind, will he be axed tonight? If so, Ferguson has three options to replace him. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have both proved more than capable of filling in the position, while Antonio Valencia has also done so too. Valencia at right-back would allow United to play both Young and Nani from the start in a very attacking line-up.
4) Richards or Zabaleta and Clichy or Kolarov?
Roberto Mancini has got some dilemmas of his own at full-back. All season long he has rotated Zabaleta and Richards at right-back, and Clichy and Kolarov at left-back/ He clearly sees Richards and Clichy as the more attacking of the pair, but has decided in ‘big’ games, to be more conservative by playing Zabaleta and Kolarov. Clichy has battled United many times over the years and done well up against Nani on occasions, but also suffering too. Kolarov meanwhile scored a free-kick in the FA Cup loss, and his goal threat has to be in his favour. Manchester born Richards will be well up for this one, but we can see Mancini plumping for Zabaleta instead.
5) Michael Owen on the bench?
The stage is set, but will he get an opportunity? Michael Owen has missed nearly the entire season through injury, and it would be an even more unlikelier comeback than Tevez were he to hit the winner in this one. His 4-3 winner in 2009 seems a long time ago now, but the once feared marksman has often remarked over the last year that he feels he has one more huge goal in him for United. He was preferred to Berbatov on the bench in last year’s Champions League final by Ferguson, and he returned to full training last week. The timing is ideal for him to nick an important goal, whether he gets on the pitch, we will see.
image: © EccyLad
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