The big one. City against United. The Manchester derby. You’re either red or blue: there is no sitting on the fence.
Louis van Gaal’s first Manchester Derby could not have come at a more complex time. The dynamic—if it was not already complicated enough with United’s new manager just finding his feet and Premier League scraps seemingly anyone’s for the taking—has been made all the more interesting by Manchester City’s poor form of late. Struggling in the Champions League, a 2-1 league defeat to West Ham was followed by a Capital One Cup exit to Newcastle midweek—the Citizens being seen off 2-0 by Pardew’s side.
The red side of Manchester are hardly fairing much better. Van Gaal’s Red Devils are languishing down in eighth place, four points adrift of their ‘noisy neighbours’ and struggling for consistency with their unbalanced squad, after a frustrating start to the season. Last weekend’s solid performance and deserved stoppage-time equaliser from Robin van Persie—grasping a point from the jaws of defeat against league leaders Chelsea—will give United fans confidence, but with a weak defence that is worryingly error-prone this season, City’s free-scoring Sergio Aguero—and company—will fancy their chances. Van Gaal’s United are a fragile outlet and have proved themselves to be psychologically unstable too. Gone are the days when a comfortable 3-1 lead would be seen out with ease—instead United have already proved unreliable in slipping from that very lead to lose out 5-3 to Leicester last month.
Despite this, you can never discount the wealth of attack that spearheads this United side. The likes of United’s Angel di Maria and Wayne Rooney will almost certainly feel that this game is there for the taking, too. City’s defence has not been in fine fettle—as evidenced by Eliaquim Mangala’s poor performance against Newcastle mid-week—and the Red Devils should have enough going forward to make it an interesting battle at least. One would suspect it to be a high-scoring affair, with both teams playing attacking football and going for the jugular.
If we are having a battle of the dodgy defences, however, it is clear that United’s come out on top—or, as the worst, depending on which way you look at it. Despite increasingly loud pleas for Van Gaal to spend big in an effort to fix a defence that let go Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic over summer, instead the Dutchman splurged on attack and seemingly ignored the problems. There have been some positives, with young players such as Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett being impressive in the minutes they have been given. There is, however, a sense that an over-reliance on the youngsters is not wise, with the Red Devils needing a world class defence to keep in touch with the best teams in Europe.
There is a sense, somewhat, that this game sits on a knife edge, and that if one team can grasp it with both hands it could be a real kick-start for their campaign. The atmosphere, as befits the Manchester derby, will be electric, and both sets of players and fans will be eager for it to get started. You could argue that at the Etihad Stadium—and with United still struggling in transition—City are the favourites, but it is certainly a difficult one to call with both teams far from at their best.
Only one thing is for certain: the Manchester derby is never boring. Expect a fiery, competitive game with plenty of talking points. Sunday. 13:30pm. You won’t want to miss it.
Be sure to go follow Ben Johnson on Twitter, @driftedoffside. And now you’ve read his view on the derby, have a look at the site’s regular preview here.
