This weekend C&J were in attendance at 2 derbies on Sunday. C was in attendance at Loftus Road for QPR v Chelsea, while J was at Old Trafford for the Manchester Derby between Manchester United and Manchester City...
J -It's official. Manchester is Red again. Sunday was arguably Man Utd's best performance of the season. Here are J's thoughts on the game:
First point to make is that there is no Moyes-bashing here but it's funny to think that just a few months ago the papers were questioning whether LVG was not progressing the team and was just the same as David Moyes. A quick Google search showed me that on 17 January the Daily Mail asked this very question and concluded that progress had been minimal, particularly for the £150m outlay of the Glazers. What a difference 3 months makes...there is now a clear difference and hopefully the pointless comparisons will stop now. After 32 games last year, United were on 54 points and in 7th position. This year they are now 11 points better off after the same number of games and 4 places higher in the table. From a fan's perspective, there has not really been any comparison this year. The confidence has been restored and even when the team weren't performing particularly well, they still appeared like they could grind out results which they couldn't do last year. Now the performances have clicked the style of football is vastly different and the attacking verve that fans have come to expect of United is back. Importantly, the club have improved in front of the home crowd as well. Last year at home, United picked up a grand total of 30(!!) points at home over the course of the whole season. They had the 9th best home record in the Premier League. After 32 games this year they have 43 points and hold the best record in the league at home. The aura around Old Trafford and the belief in the team is returning, as is the enjoyment watching attacking and winning football.
Moving on to the game...it was striking how polar opposite this year's Old Trafford derby was to last year's. Last year United were meek and rolled over easily. They dominated possession in both games (they had 53% possession last year, compared to 59% this year) which just shows that having possession amounts to nothing if you aren't clinical and prolific with your possession. United's style has been criticised for being too direct this year but since the Tottenham game at Old Trafford it has been direct football with a purpose and has been fast paced with a real gameplan in mind, as opposed to sterile possession. United had 7 shots on target this game and scored with 4 goals. Simply put, they were clinical with their finishing and were dominant throughout the game. It looked like it could have been more more after Smalling got the 4th goal and Citeh just didn't turn up after they got their early goal.
The resurgence of Marouane Fellaini continues. I will hold my hands up and admit I thought he was way out of his depth at United after last season but he has well and truly won me and the majority of United fans over judging by his standing ovation on Sunday. He was absolutely dominant all game and ran Yaya Toure ragged. Fellaini won 9 aerial challenges on Sunday and this was again in stark contrast to his performance in this game last year where he won just 3 aerial challenges. He only had 49 touches in the game last year and was largely absent, exerting no influence at all. This year he had 61 touches including the 2nd goal for United, and he won the ball back in the move which led to Mata's goal. Defensively he had an influence as well and made 2 clearances and 2 interceptions, which again compares to last year where he had 1 interception and 0 clearances. Fellaini has shown character and ability this year in abundance and is due a lot of credit for his turnaround, as is LVG who has played him in his perfect role. It begs the question why Moyes didn't when he knew the player inside out?
Michael Carrick has been called under-rated so many times, it has to come to a point when this is no longer the case but his influence was clearly evident on Sunday. He exerted a calm presence over the midfield and marshalled Jones and Smalling in the centre of defence as well. It's no coincidence that the periods of bad performances came primarily when Carrick was absent. He has been excellent this year and his one year contract extension was an excellent decision by the United hierarchy.
C-
It was a case of the age old hard luck story for QPR under Chris Ramsey. They fought admirably and tactically were set up perfectly for the match with the village idiots from SW6, but yet again a moment of madness cost the Superhoops so so dear. This was the most gut wrenching of all the recent frustrations, not just because it came at the hands of that lot, but because it genuinely showed we could compete with the best in the Premier League once again and make them very very uncomfortable.
Chris Ramsey was quick to leap to the defence of Rob Green after the match and insisted that the blame would not lie with him, but with the defence for their slow reactions to the situation. Whilst I agree that QPR did not use the thirty-odd seconds they had to scurry back and ensure they each had a Chelsea man very well at all, I can't absolve 'Greeno' of all blame. His kicking has always looked dodgy to me and I think he knows it is his weakness, hence his decision to throw out to his nearest defender so often. He panicked here for no apparent reason and that was inexcusable. Of course, painful as it is to say, the Chavs showed the kind of performance that was worth its weight in dirty Russian Roubles (by the way, how on earth can Jose Mourinho have the audacity to declare the fascist institution as being "Financial Fair Play compliant" and then accuse Manchester City of being the bad guys? I think if it's going to be applied, it should be applied retrospectively right back to the first time Red Rom said "I buy it!").
I still can't believe how ordinary we made Chelsea look, how we clearly rattled them and how they only managed one shot on target and 70% pass completion. "Still beat you though" - I can hear those smug b@stards now...
Oh, special mention for the "Captain, Leader, Fascist" John Terry, the treatment of whom by the home fans disgusted many Chelsea fans, I note. How anyone can defend the actions of that man and his family is beyond me - and don't even talk to me about the people that wrote "John Terry" and "class" in the same sentence, as some deluded Village Idiots did. They will argue 'til they're blue in the face that we are hypocrites for saying the same about Joey Barton - I don't see any QPR fan writing "Joey Barton" and "class*" in the same sentence - "class" implies role model status. Neither of the pantomime villains are anything like "class". The missile throwing was unacceptable but will the FA punish the Chelsea players for incitement? Of course not, the top teams are untouchable when it comes to that sort of thing...
*Joey Barton did, in fact, put in a Man of the Match performance - a tenacious, determined performance where he really hassled the Chelsea midfield, not allowing them any time on the ball, as well as providing a driving force as QPR sought an unlikely goal. Still not class, though. Just to clear that up.
Matty Phillips deserves a mention for his progress under Chris Ramsey. Listed for loan in the January Transfer Window and almost joining Derby County, Phillips has been a revelation since the change of management. His confidence has grown week by week and he looks more and more like the player I hoped we had signed when we spent £5m on him from Blackpool two Summers ago (wonder what the Oystons did with that money?). Second top assist maker in Europe behind Messi since the turn of the year?! You bet!
A two week break now (as we're a game ahead of the rest of the pack) this will be a horrible Saturday afternoon spent in front of Jeff Stelling and Co. praying teams around us slip up. It's crap when it's not in your hands! We must win our remaining home games and get a point somewhere on the road in our last three aways to at least have a chance.
Whatever happens, I really don't think we'd have got this far and shown this much fight and determination under Harry Houdini. Chef Ramsey has done an excellent job since taking over. Unfortunately he can't seem to bring confidence to the fragile defence, the damage to them seems irreparable and this may yet prove to be the trigger for relegation. But he's at least instilled confidence and a new way of playing that means we're having a right good go!
