The Red Side rule once again
Finally, Manchester is Red again!!! It's been a while since we beat the blue scum from across the city but Sunday's performance was well deserving of the result. The run of games that laid ahead of us has nearly come to an end and we have emerged stronger than we were when we entered it. Admittedly the first twenty or so minutes were not good, we looked slow, vulnerable and toothless; much like the majority of the season. The goal from Aguero had me thinking the worst although I knew it was coming from the second the commentator said 'he's never not scored for seven games.' It wasn't looking good and it looked as though City's tactics were correct. Sit Milner on Carrick to stop him affecting the game and keep Toure on Fellaini to match his size and physicality. But all of a sudden we got a goal back, a very lucky goal but still a goal. The 'reborn' Ashley Young doing his part yet again. From that moment everything in the game changed and for some reason Milner couldn't stick with Carrick and Fellaini managed to lose or outmuscle Toure, the game was ours. I said a few weeks ago that the key player for Manchester United is Carrick and his performance in the derby proved that. A player that dictates the pace of the game with minimal effort is top class and Carrick does and did exactly that. He rarely ventures too far forward despite having a very good shot on him, he sits perfectly in front of our back four protecting them and giving them the option of another pass. Just when the opposition think they have the team pinned you'll see Carrick move himself a few metres and open everything back up for us, he's a brilliant brilliant player and Ferguson made an excellent purchase when he bought him from Spurs. When he left the field late on you could see the control we had disappear, obviously playing against eleven players with ten is bound to have its own effect but losing Carrick made it more obvious. Luckily our opposition didn't seem to realise so we were able to coast to the end of the game, the fact that we held a three goal lead at the time of Carrick's departure was a good sign that the job the team went out to do had been completed and gave us a nice cushion to play with. I had a feeling as this game approached and our form and confidence improved, that we would win. It's the most confident before a derby I have been in a while. After we beat Liverpool and opened the gap between us and them I felt that as long as we beat Villa and City we'd have top four. By the time the City game come up the players had extra incentive, beat them and go four clear of fourth with a strong push towards second and if luck were to shine on us, first. All of these factors gave me a good feeling and I'm happy the result I wanted came in. There is a lot of people saying the two signings making the biggest difference are Moyes's. It's true that he bought both players, but he also failed to get anything from them. Sometimes it isn't about just bringing the player in, it's about making that player an effective addition and this year van Gaal has managed to do that for Mata and Fellaini as well as helping Young discover his form. The great coach we were all told about coming to our club may have struggled to start with but the longer he is there, the more we are seeing the genius coming out. We travel to Chelsea this week, it is probably the biggest game left on our calendar this season. The goal, I assume is to not lose, although the players and manager will say it is to win. Obviously it would be good to win but we are going to Stamford Bridge against a Mourinho Chelsea who are only a few points away from confirming them as this years Champions, it will be hard. The tactics may change slightly but we could see an approach similar to the Liverpool match. Six games to go, four away and two at home, I don't expect us to win every game but I think we will definitely be in Europe next year. On to Saturday night... Forever United!!!