It was a poor first half and considering the managers in charge and the players on display, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stray passes in a Manchester derby before, espeicially in recent times. For that reason there wasn’t that many chances created, Iheanacho had City’s best chance for them, not just of the half, but pretty much of the game after a few minutes. Bizarrely though, even though I was right behind the goal in the Stretford End I thought initially it was good defending and a great clearance from Daley Blind. Then Mike Dean pointed for a goal kick. No one complained and correctly so.
Luke Shaw had a bit of a torrid time first half mind due, he just never got close to Navas at all. Quite a few diaganal passes were sent out to him, Shaw wasn’t close enough and by the time Shaw got to him, Navas was already at full pelt and skipping past him. I think he got his cross in five times out of five in that half. The second half was certainly different, Mourinho must have had a word because Shaw was much tighter and blocked pretty much every attempt that Navas tried thankfully.
For a Manchester derby the atmosphere wasn’t great, it was good but it should be so much better. I’m guessing it just sounded loud around people’s own seat from wherever they were sat. I was singing most of the game of course but you couldn’t really here the away fans, apart from on a couple of occasions, nor could I hear the other sides of Old Trafford. Gone are the days when an evening derby should be absolute rocking. I can still remember Cantona’s debut when we won 2-1 back in 1992, that was an electric atmosphere that night and also a great game.
This game was without real incident, the most irate I got was at the end when Pogba got booked for a genuniely hard but good tackle. Of course you don’t want to see people get injured but booking someone just because he went into a tackle strong is ridulous. Yes, he charged across the field and went in hard, but he went in low whilst sliding the last few yards to block the ball. Just because Otamendi went to ground clutching his ankle and screaming, does not mean it’s always a yellow card.
Our goal came on 54 minutes from Juan Mata, who’s fast becoming not just a lucky charm anymore, with goals and assists whenever he plays now. Pogba had a great chance just before that though and from TV replays which I’ve seen since, it looked like he intially wholloped the post with his shot. From my ankle behind the goal though I knew straight away what a great save it was from Caballero.
A win is a win over City, I’ve since heard and seen United fans on the radio and on social media trying to goad City fans and acting like we’ve won an actual trophy. Yes, great we’ve beaten City, so what – we should be beating them at home whether it’s in a cup competion or in the league. The fact that some fans are reacting like this now, just shows how much they feel our club has dropped and how a City game is now massive.
I just don’t get it, who cares about them, lets just concerntrate on ourselves. Same for City fans, all I’ve heard from them in the last few days is how they had their ‘reserves’ out, so what. United picked a team to beat City, they had no idea how City would line up and we of course want to win every game. Well I always do, what ever the competition, it’s all about winning trophies at the end of the day.
Roll on February though at their place, unless we manage to draw them in the FA Cup as well this season.
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