Manchester United take on Manchester City in a pivotal clash Sunday (live, FOX Soccer, 8 a.m. Eastern) that has major implications for this year’s title race.
City have leveraged their fabulously wealthy squad into the lead of the Premier League and despite having more drama than daytime television have managed to be startlingly cohesive when it counts.
No Carlos Tevez? No problem: the sulking Argentine was swapped out effortlessly for his national teammate Sergio 'Kun' Aguero, and City haven’t missed a trick since. The emergence of Edin Dzeko as a viable threat and the incisive vision of midfielders Samir Nasri and David Silva have made City a very difficult squad to contain.
That will be the issue for a United team that stormed out of the gate but is now showing the effects of injury and age. While the Red Devils are a more youthful team after the summer signings of Ashley Young and Phil Jones, they are also commensurately less experienced. With Rio Ferdinand beginning to creak and Nemanja Vidic too often absent, young keeper David De Gea has been forced to grow up faster than Sir Alex Ferguson would have wanted.
Both Vidic and Ferdinand are expected to play together Sunday for the first time since the season opener. Only long-term absentees Tom Cleverley and Rafael will be unavailable for the Red Devils. City also has a nearly full squad with the only question mark being Nigel De Jong (hip). Tevez, of course, has been grounded and sent to his room.
The keys to this game are fairly straightforward: City have to contain United’s harassing style of play from the flanks while going forward themselves to test the still shaky De Gea.
Nani and Ashley Young will overlap out wide to feed Wayne Rooney in his new withdrawn role, with Javier Hernandez playing up top to poach. That foursome will be marked by Micah Richards and Vincent Kompany, both of whom have been exceptionally steady. Joleon Lescott will be tested in the heart of defense with De Jong, if fit, dropping back to cover.
If possible, Gael Clichy will roam forward for City to bring attacks out of the back, but if De Jong is unavailable a great deal of pressure will fall on to the weak link in the mix: Gareth Barry. He has not shown the speed or technique to compete at this level and is frequently bailed out by Yaya Toure. But Yaya having to scoot back removes a potent force at midfield, so look for United’s Darren Fletcher and Anderson to go right at the England international and force the issue.
Silva has already established himself as one of the best creators in the game, but the question is whether Mancini gambles and uses Mario Balotelli across from him or falls back on Nasri, who has been both frustrating and brilliant for City since his controversial move away from Arsenal.
At times, Nasri has looked at sea — a prime case in point being his vanishing act against Bayern Munich in the Champions League — at others, he has looked deadly. No matter who lines up wide left, it is 'Kun', his club’s leading scorer with eight so far, who will lead the line out.
Despite some recent blips, only a fool counts out United at home in key games. Love ‘em or hate ‘em — or both, come to think of it — they have a habit of grinding out results in games like this. History suggests that both teams will play a tight, almost chippily conservative game, waiting for the other to make a mistake, and that probably plays into United’s hands, given their penchant for nicking late wins after running teams around for 80 minutes.
But Roberto Mancini’s side are also pretty good at stifling a game, even if that makes for exasperating watching. They are often reluctant to open up despite their firepower, so fans should watch for tough tackles in midfield to goad United into mistakes. Also watch for a lot of complaints towards referee Mark Clattenburg and his crew. This is the sort of game that makes for a host of “discussion points.” Expect a few of them to involve questionable calls.
