Manchester United lost 1-0 to Manchester City last night to give their neighbours the upper hand in the title race.
Like everybody else, we had speculated about the teams both sides would pick ahead of the Manchester derby, knowing one manager would get it right, and one would regret his choices.
Roberto Mancini got it spot on, selecting all of his key attacking players, where Sir Alex Ferguson did not.
Instead of sticking with the team which had got him largely through the last 10 games, he panicked.
He judged his selection on the 20 minutes the sides folded against Everton, rather than the nine matches and 70 minutes before it.
United had such a settled side over this period, which on the flip side meant that players brought into ‘do a job’ last night simply lacked match sharpness.
I’m talking about Jones, Smalling, Park, Giggs, and even Nani, all who have between them have just started six league games since March.
The last league game Smalling and Park started was on January 31 against Stoke. Was it fair to throw them into the title decider, with no form to speak of?
Experience and reputation over form- this is the type of selection that has seen England fail in major tournaments so often down the years.
Antonio Valencia’s omission was the most perplexing, he has been United’s biggest attacking threat over the last few months, in tandem with Rafael down the right.
There were a number of times Phil Jones got the ball wide right and failed to deliver telling crosses, an asset of right-back Rafael da Silva in recent games, dropped after United’s collapse against Everton.
Not that there were many bodies in the box to find, with Rooney on his own up front, and looked improved when Danny Welbeck was brought on.
It was Yaya Toure’s presence for Manchester City which exposed United’s biggest limitation.
Just like the FA Cup semi-final 12 months ago, nobody in a red shirt could get near him all night, he was completely dominant, helping City break up and United chain of passing.
Sir Alex Ferguson should have realised last summer that United were desperately short of a central midfielder – or two – to help them compete, and failed to act.
It has been their achilles heel all season when tested against a top team, with Athletic Bilbao passing them off the pitch home and away.
With their central midfield so weak, it almost does not matter which team Ferguson had selected, Valencia or no Valencia, Park or no Park, they would have lost any way.
image: © marc_tacoma
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