Sunday 2 November 2014

Manchester united vs Manchester city : 3v2 battle in the first half but ultimately the sending off costs United the game.

11v11

At 11 v 11 this was a great match especially the midfield battle Manchester united's 3 midfielders vs Manchester city's 2. One numerous occasions Fellaini was free and unmarked in between the Man city defence and midfield. If the Man united passing was better then they may have exploited this area better but their passing in the final third was poor. Manchester city were content on creating quick counter attacks launching more direct passing towards the flanks of Man united  in which they cause United problems and created chances from those positions. Manchester united didnt help this by using a highline the played right into the hands of Man city with aguero getting behind the defence plenty of times.

As for Man united they were content on taking advantage of the numbers in midfield and kept the ball knocking it around using blind as the point of reference. Shaw was allowed freedom to go forward especially considering how narrow Di Maria was but Valencia generally stayed at home as Januzaj played extremely hugging the touchline line i believe this was a ploy to target the Man city left back Clichy as Van gaal maybe believes hes error prone. Rooney played a more free roaming roam finding himself all over the pitch at times.


















Below is a graphic to show how many touches Rooney had all game and you'll see he has a lot varied all over the pitch which shows how hard he worked and how he was maneuvering all over the pitch.










Red card- game changer 

After Smalling got sent off after a pointless first yellow Man utd had to adapt and brought on Carrick to play at centre back and went 4-4-1 bringing Januzaj off the tatctical plan had to be scrapped due to the sending off. Man united tried to soak up the pressure and invite city on to them a change of tactic which the players had to get used to quickly.

City slow the game down but get a little nervy near the end.

After city scored their aim was to slow the game down and try to take the sting out the game because United were still dangerous. Pellegrini changed to a 4-2-3-1 near the end bringing off Aguero for a more defensively minded Fernandinho.

Conclusion 

City win the game but oh how it could of been so different at 11v11 i think we would have had a hell of a game. City still looked Shaky at the end and will need to hold their nerve better as it could have been so different. As for united they shouldn't be too disheartened by this result as they were very unlucky to have a man sent off , 10 v 11 against the current champions with a team still under contruction is a big ask but at 11v11 who knows what would have happened.





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