Manchester Remembers

Around a week ago, it was the 50th anniversary of the 1958 Munich tragedy which claimed the lives of 8 Man Utd players and 3 staff members from the promising Busby Babes squad. Last weekend, the 1 minute of silence was honourably held by the City fans with the United players dressed in plain red and white v-neck jerseys. Only squad numbers from 1-11 were used for the starting eleven. Wayne Rooney was unfortunate to miss playing in the occasion after his 5th yellow card.

United's form from the past 2 Premier League games have been rather worrying. The 1-1 draw in White Hart Lane could have easily been a loss if not for Tevez's last ditch attempt. The bad stuff just got worse last weekend. The defence was just bad, plain bad. The attack was decent, a little better than the one at Tottenham but it is still poor finishing given the amount of talents in the team. So, if you don't finish at the final third and with your defence at the wrong position all the time, even the home fans can't save the team from bad results. United's defence got it all wrong while City's two centrebacks, Dunne and Richards were solid in their positions. Dunne especially, I think, is on steroids! The City captain is seems to be always in the right place to block shots and nullify attacking runs. On the other hand, Ferdinand was at one of his worst moments, and not being aware of his positioning most of the time. I think the glaring weakness is John O shea on the left. First, he does not provide sufficient runs along the left lane like Evra to pressurise City. Next, he can't even defend his own flank properly. I have to say both of City's goal came from his side and both scorers were virtually unmarked by anyone.

Benjani proved to be a very shrewd buy from City. He's on hot form in Portsmouth and he's carrying it on in his new club with a debut goal. United's fortune would perhaps had been different if they had gotten an extra striker during the January transfer. There is no way Rooney+Tevez combi to be available for every match of the season. Saha is on/off with no constant form. The City match saw Giggs/Nani/Ronaldo played in the same team. Technically, it's Giggs left, Nani right and Ronaldo playing forward support. But in the match, they switch all around so constantly since each three of them had experimented playing in each other's position before. It was changing "so constant" that they themselves lost track of each other and so do the rest of the team. Ronaldo was shut down heavily and I think he's way better off playing at the extreme right winger instead of charging near center. I must say, Rooney is really missed in such an electrifying derby match. While the most obvious is his striking skills, I would point out that the motivation "aura" that he provides on the field is priceless. The determination and his psyched up personality would do much to gear up team chemistry and fire. But as off last weekend, the Man Utd team was playing all over the place, losing posession, and don't look like that they had the same team bond they had last season. Lol, surprisingly, the guy who came out and scored was Carrick but it came too late. Seriously, it's time that Fergie should invest on a match winning sub like Solskjaer or Robben. The sub bench last weekend contained no strikers but sit-back players like Carrick and Hargreaves. Both of them are really more useful if United had been leading and relying on "parking bus" tactic to keep the result. Well, United better buck up. Arse-nal's coming up in the next cup match, perhaps a prelude on the future league match.