A Tale of Two Derbies

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!

United Don't Quite Stuff Turk(ey)s

Match Report: Man Utd 1-0 Galatasaray

I'm going to start this report by saying I am mostly going off of my thoughts on the game at the time last night. I've only seen an 8 minute highlight clip on the internet this morning after hearing that there were 2 penalty appeals I was not really aware of at the time so don't think it is total bias when I downplay them a bit.

I was really looking forward to last night's game. There is nothing like a Champions League night at Old Trafford in my opinion and Galatasaray fans have such a good reputation for atmosphere. I thought it would be a cracking game. After last season's debacle in Europe this was also a chance for the players to right some wrongs, but I think that proved more of a burden in the end, which I will come to. Fergie's programme notes said that he took the blame for last year's exit as he experimented with the lineup too much in Europe, and that he wouldn't do the same thing again this year. He was true to his word last night as he picked a very strong team from the outset (thankfully).

The game started at a very lively pace and to be honest like I said above, I wasn't really aware that there was a big penalty appeal from Gala straight away in the game. Vidic looked like he got the ball from where we were sitting and Umut Bulut seemed to go down rather theatrically, which probably didn't help his cause with Wolfgang Stark or 'Wolfsta' as I know him. On closer inspection it did look like a penalty, but that was with the aid of a replay.

Subsequently, United then seemed to start playing the ball nicely and Carrick scored after 7 minutes with a peach of a goal. It was a really nice move and his interplay with Kagawa was lovely. He took the goal with aplomb and took it round the keeper with some style. You'd normally associate a goal like that with someone like RVP and it was a great start.

Galatasaray then seemed to come into the game a bit more, or rather were let into the game a lot more by United being sloppy passing the ball. They hit the top of the bar through Nordin Amrabat who looked really quite handy down their right hand side. It seemed like Gala attacks were mainly coming through wastefulness in possession by United who just seemed a notch down from their usual level of passing. I think they wanted to take the sting out of the game and pass it around too much and Galatasaray came with a plan to counter attack in numbers and at speed which was the perfect game plan to take advantage of United this match, since their passing was so lackadaisical and sloppy. Gala also hit the post from a nice little free kick routine where Hamit Altintop was given the freedom of Old Trafford to pick his spot and curl one in. Fortunately for United he didn't get quite enough bend on it.

Throughout the game, but particularly in the first half, I thought that once again Shinji Kagawa was superb and looks like a genuinely class player, or as 'Arry would put it - 'a top, top player'. His ability to find space to receive the ball is uncanny and also reminiscent of a player who's name begins with P and ends in aul Scholes. His passing is also really triffic (Arry again) and is so clever. Just look at the passes to release Nani for a one on one in the first 5 minutes and then for Carrick's goal and you'll see what I mean. You get the feeling him and RVP haven't quite got the perfect understanding at the moment but I'm sure that will come, and I cannot wait for when it does.


I thought that Kagawa was United's best attacking spark as the remaining attacking trio of Nani, Valencia and RVP all lacked a final product. RVP never really got into the game and that's credit to the 'Gala' defence as he didn't really have a sniff all night. Valencia put in a lot of industry and gave the 'Gala' left back a good roasting at some points but he never really came up with any end product to match his effort. His crossing seemed off all game and I lost count of the number of times he overhit a cross or just failed to find anyone. It seemed that he was just crossing for the sake of it last night and didn't really ever have an intended target for any of his crosses. That said, he was constantly a threat and is almost always a better outlet than Nani who had another one of his infuriating nights.


When United got their penalty in the 52nd minute the Stretford End immediately began chanting Robin Van Persie's name in anticipation, until Nani picked up the ball. Nearly everyone around us was asking 'What?'. It seemed inevitable he would miss and I'm not exaggerating when I say I don't think many around me were confident of him scoring. His run up was ridiculous and his penalty was tame. I don't know why he thought he should take the penalty and Fergie has since blamed himself for not designating RVP as penalty taker before the game. Nani has so much potential but he sometimes seems to lack any brain cells when picking what to do, and his dive in the area from a corner was indicative of this. He completely fooled the defender and would have had space to take a shot from a decent position in the box, but instead he chose to dive (terribly, I might add) and unsuprisingly nothing was given and Galatasaray almost scored straight from the counter attack that followed but for a brilliant double save from David De Gea.


In the brightest spot of the game, Darren Fletcher returned to the team after 10 months out with a bowel problem, and he was given a magnificent standing ovation by OT. It's great to see Fletcher back as he was one of United's best midfielders before his illness and his determination and grit is exactly what the midfield needs when times get tough. He can add a bit more steel than other midfielders who are all a bit more creative. He looked like he was understandably lacking sharpness and I think he'll be eased back gently over the next few weeks/months until he regains match fitness.


Chicharito came on for RVP in the latter stages of the game and as the match became more stretched with 'Gala' trying to find an equaliser he could have had a hat-trick. But all in all this was a solid result for United. I thought the team looked increasingly nervous throughout the match which could be as a result of last season's dismal performances in Europe. Hopefully this win will give them some confidence to move forward and on this game's evidence, I wouldn't be surprised if Galatasaray qualify from the group, as long as they take their chances a bit more clinically. United would have come undone against a better side I am sure, but they did enough to win this game and the three points is all that matters.


*A quick note to say how lovely it was to hear 'Viva Ronaldo' ringing out through OT after his winning goal against City the night before. Just remember Cristiano (he's a regular reader of the blog don't you know): you're always welcome back anytime!

J