Jan 19
Manchester City vs Manchester United: Preview
The Carling Cup semi final first leg is here, its Manchester United versus Manchester City, and it promises to be a mouth-watering encounter. City are in decent form, whereas United are in a crisis according to the media, but who will come out on top? Will Carlos Tevez score against his former team? Or will we prove that there is only one team in Manchester?
Not having won any silverware for 34 years the city’s other team will be out with something to prove and Sir Alex Ferguson is not taking them lightly, “You have to recognise they (Manchester City) are a competitor now. They are making a much better fist of their league programme this year than they have done in the past. We have had to wait a long time for it to be like that. It’s a popular argument that the match means more to City. As far as I am concerned it is a semi-final,” stated Ferguson.
A semi final indeed, in 34 years City have seen United lift 25 major trophies, and Sir Alex as seen 13 City managers come and go. Newly appointed Roberto Mancini realises the importance of winning that elusive trophy, “I am new in Manchester City, so the trophy is important to me. But the same is true for the players and the club because when you start to win trophies, you change your mentality, we want the Carling Cup. But it must only be the start,” said the Italian.
The team selection could be interesting on United’s part. Sir Alex did say before the first attempt to play the fixture he would stick with the kids and there should be no reason to doubt him, or should there. We have been in terrible form and a settled line up could well be just what we need.
Edwin van der Sar should continue in goal, making his 200th appearance for United, as it would be unproductive to leave him out after one game. Tomasz Kuszczak will likely be keeping the bench warm as Ben Foster has a back complaint.
In defence, Nemanja Vidic could make a return to the first team, along side either Wes Brown or Jonny Evans, more likely the latter given Brown’s lack of form recently. Patrice Evra at left back is a no-brainer and Gary Neville, our Club Captain should keep his place, despite the lackluster performance against Burnley. Rio Ferdinand and John O’Shea are still out.
Being away from home, Sir Alex would likely field a five-man midfield. In the centre, Michael Carrick and Anderson accompanied by Darren Fletcher, who returns from suspension. Antonio Valencia has been in sparkling form of late and will look to terrorize the City defence. On the left either Gabriel Obertan or Ji-Sung Park, considering Park’s lack of playing time, he will probably get the nod. Giggs is being rested for this one.
Wayne Rooney cannot be looked past for the lone striker role. Michael Owen or Mame Biram Diouf will make a cameo at some point in the game. Dimitar Bebatov has a dead leg.
City go into the tie missing a number of players, obviously Adebayor is on compassionate leave. Wayne Bridge and Joleon Lescott are out with knee injuries, Santa Cruz and Patrick Vieira are out with calf injuries and Kolo Toure is on African Cup of Nations duty.
One player who is itching to play is Carlos Tevez, I want to play in this match for many reasons,” Tevez said. “The squad is confident, morale is high and if we get a victory over United it will be sensational.” It remains to be seen if the Argentine can score. Something he failed to do in the 4-3 game earlier this season.
Interestingly enough the last three Manchester derbies at Eastlands have ended 1-0, twice in United’s favour and under Sir Alex Ferguson United have contested seven League Cup semi-finals, reaching the final on six occasions.
It promises to be an intriguing tie, but a difficult one. Lets hope we can take an advantage to Old Trafford next week and finish them off on our own patch.
Prediction: 2-1 City
Probable Line Up: van der Sar, Evra, Evans, Vidic, Neville, Park, Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Valencia, Rooney.
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Also see: Manchester United v Manchester City preview.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Man Utd v Everton: Preview
- Manchester United 2006/2007 Season Review
- The Manchester United Pledge
- Man Utd v Stoke: Preview
- Derby County v Man Utd: Preview
Tags: Manchester United News
Opti (541)
Stephen (479)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
@NicoQB: I echo exactly what you say regards Anderson m8, just a waste of time, looks hapless and unbalanced.All I was meaning regards Sissoko, dont build your hopes up, other clubs have been showing interest, this always happens during the January window, he probably will be a realistic target after South Africa, and France’s speedy exit for Henry’s wrong doing on the Irish!
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@Grognard: I agree with you EXCEPT for the part where our entire team are useless duds. I refuse to believe that. I believe that we have a good squad (not great, but good). Our current style just don’t suit our players, and vice versa.
Also, I feel that a bit of neglect in developing our youngsters have crept in. Wednesday’s first 20minutes is testament that we CAN play entertaining attacking football if we want to. Just like the first 10 minutes in Rome. We have enough capable players to do that. We just choose not to.
On a side-note, everybody is craving for us to purchase an attacking midfielder. I believe we already have that person in our team…Rooney.
He is not clinical enough to be the best striker in the world, but he has everything else to become the best CAM in the world. It is in his nature to track back and get ‘involved’. He does not have the patience to just wait, and wait, and wait. Therefore I feel he is much more suited to that position. What we need now to make 451 work, I believe is a RVN/Drogba type of player. Perhaps Diouff is that person??? Don’t know. Have not seen enough of him.
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@Karl: Agree about manipulating statistics, but can you even lay blame on something/someone when there’s the said determining factor is not even involved in the test process?
My ire stems from some people here trying to shift most of the blame on berbatov when very often he’s not been playing enough to warrant that blame.
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@Grognard: or you could pony up the 50,000 for a bond i think they are getting like 8% pr yr. not a bad investment and it would help to alleviate the debt.
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@Jay Jay: There is one thing that Economics don’t teach. That is, there is a set of rules that we follow, and a completely different set of rules for the uber rich. I’ve come to realise that if you have lots of money, any rule can be bent. I’m not sure how THEY got it right, but I do know that if you want to make a huge investment, the bank might see the deal as an investment for them too and ‘allow’ you to structure a deal of the sorts. If you think about it logically, if they agreed to grant him the ‘surety’ of the loan before the time, they will not lose anything if his bid got rejected by the club. However, they stand to gain a lot should the deal go through. It would also then be in their best interest to ‘help the deal along’.
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What did I tell you about Diouf?
Exactly!
Now kiss my toes and wipe my ass, Eddy is in town and he knows Mame is class!
You can ignore me all you want, but you will always notice me, so fuck off with your views because me and my power will never flee.
Motherfucker I am always right, even when I’m wrong, so just open your eyes and listen to me because Mame is on song!
He scores and he rips, his style is immense, I believe that this guy will crush every defence!
So fuck off dear Ruud, Saha and Tevez, that motherfucking gorrillah will be crunched by our Wes
Now we’ve got our Mame, his name is Diouf, when he’s on the pitch oppositions scream “OOOOUUUUUFFFFF!!!!”
WHO’S THAT TWAT FROM ARGENTINA?!
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@NicoQB: I understand your frustrations. I don’t believe it is his fault. I also believe that he can contribute more to the team if used properly, but also that is not his fault. He is a magnificant player. Period.
IT is for this reason that I had the long post of us blaming all the players. Everybody feel a different player is to blame. It shows that they are still not sure what the real problem is.
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@Karl: I Do not wish to butt into you and Grognards Intelligent debate. Firstly and body who says the team are as whole group are a ALL useless duds , imho aint worth debating with.
Look at the Premiership teams m8, and ask yourself or watch how many youngsters you see getting a chance at, say Chelsea,Spurs,Villa,Puddle,ask yourself the same question regards SAF.
I sorta know what u mean regards the first 10 minutes at wastelands, we had them racked, but u must expect a reply.We got truely fucked, bye the Ref MEAN,and good goalkeeping bye Given.
The rest of your rant regards Rooney, that’s your view although I think the English manager has a view Simalar to SAF.
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@EduardoDaVinci4: You sound very sure of yourself. Maybe now you can change your name back to RedDevilEddy?
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@Traverse: all i have heard as well has been good news. one story this week said that it was looking like we might be able to sell 700m worth, that would be feking sweet knock the debt down and have some working capital to play with in the transfer market. Fingers crossed bitches
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@EduardoDaVinci4:
And handled himself with humility and balance in front of the camera, not only on the field, class act!Manchester united material for sure
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@Scotjimland: The English manager plays Rooney behind a front man. SAF plays him up top. In fact, were he to play CAM in a 451 formation, guess what, he would play behind a front man.
Did the ref ‘give’ them the 2nd goal too?
Besides, for 3 or 4 years now, every keeper that plays against a United team where Rooney feature has a good game. Why is that? Fact is, his finishing is not clinical enough as a striker. Hehas always been a favourite of mine. But, even I must admit that his finishing is not clinical enough. How many of his opportunities do you honestly think RVN would have missed or packed away?
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Diouf is on fire we dont need no tevez let the mufeker burn
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So ive read no less than two stories on the net today on red nevils finger and tevez speak in his own language about how out of line that was, but not one fucking word on the fact that a united player was hit with a projectile durring the game at wastelands. ABU eh boys…
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@Scotjimland: It’s not just about giving youngsters a chance. It is about developing them.
Also, none of the managers in the teams you listed came out like Fergie saying that this season we will focus more on the youngsters. Also, we are the ones claiming that we are the best club for nurturing young talent.
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@colver: It doesn’t help to be a creative striker supplying incompetent finishers like Anderson(open goal,inside the box vs CSKA in Moscow) or Rooney. Last season we had Ronaldo who we all know is totally ruthless in front of goal.
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@EduardoDaVinci4:
Nice rap
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@EduardoDaVinci4: If you don’t make it as a footballer, you can always try your hand at hip-hop.
So, please, do make it at football!
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@Karl: Maddafakka Eddy is back, I’m ready to burn with guns in my backpack. You fuck with me and you fuck with destiny, call it reality, diversity, infinity or infantry. RedDevilEddy will be no longer, EduardoDaVinci is so much more stronger. The name is of the devil and he can be defeated, while creativity will remain forever without being beaten. So fuck off the devil, Eduardo is your man! You fuck with me and I’ll beat you up so your head fits in a trashcan. United born and bred, never doubt that again in my life, cause if I stab me in my heart with a motherfucking knife.
Eddy is fucking back!!!
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@NicoQB: Oy!
I do rap you know, just a little high right now… 
I’m rivid, my head is blasted!
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@Karl: @Karl:
il deal with the the key points in yer reply, re watch the match m8, build up to there second goal, ? was that a corner, no fuckin no,MEAN , stuffed us.
I tell you what regards the rest of your rant lets just pull him back to midway, and all will be ok.Advise please who is scoring on a more regular basis, dont say michael, he is fantastic, but hay ho,Dimatar?
As i said ages ago IF two components of United were not there right now,SAF and Wayne, we would be royally fucked, we are in metamorphosis
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@Cyclops-Red: No it wasn’t, I can do much better.
Just thought of that in like 3 minutes, don’t wanna read for a test so I’m just rivid right now and fucking around for fun. 
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@Scotjimland: At Spurs they give youngsters a chance. Youngsters are not just players from the academy. Bale,Lennon,Dawson,O’Hara,Huddlestone are all players who started to feature regularly as youngsters. Arsenal also give youngsters opportunities. Chelsea have never claimed to be a club that supports youngsters,the same goes for Liverpool. But we and Arsenal have made such claims so many times so it’s rather hypocritical when we continuously start Gary Neville or Paul Scholes etc.
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@gator: We don’t need no Tevez let the motherfucker burn
We don’t need no Tevez let the motherfucker burn
We don’t need no Tevez let the mother…
*Repeat* again
and again
and again
and again
Until you sing it on your way to work to tell every motherfucking ABU out there who is the real king!
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@Scotjimland: Diouf is class, if he gets a chance he will prove his worth.
A reserve game doesn’t prove shit, but I have enormous faith in the lad. Manchester motherfucking United material FO’ SHO’!
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@Scotjimland: So, now you’re saying that for United a corner against = a goal?
Few years back I failed a subject at school. My best subject. Thinking back now, I realise how foolish it was of me to blame the teacher.
First off, I don’t think you read my post properly. After all, I did state that we need to get a striker. Perhaps Owen or Berbatov might surprise you if they get a decent run of games (in proper positions).
What I can’t understand is how the ‘best team in the world’ can be in ‘metamorphis’ a year and a half down the line, after selling one player and letting another go because he wasn’t good enough. I think we are already fucked. Especially if we start blaming the ref after every game.
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@EduardoDaVinci4: Cool. Get the message (amidst all the swearing). Respect.
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@Karl: Just understand we have had a fucking awfull time regards defensive injuries that have cost us,and no other team I can think of in the Premiership would have handled better. Its brought Evan’s Gibson De laet to the fore, can u recall the defensive partnership of fletcher and Carrick, that was the state of play. remind me of our postion in the league,carling, Ecl?
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@Jay wire: “Youngsters are not just players from the academy”
That’s actually a very good statement. Considering that we have defensive injuries galore. What do we do? We put midfielders in defensive positions instead of giving reserve-team players a chance. What happened to “we will focus on youngsters this season” (SAF after the Ronaldo sale).
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@Karl: Eweeeh!
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@Jay wire: point 523 yer having a laugh right, bale
ohara loaned to pompey, back to spuds to be loaned again,I never mentioned The arse. we all know his pedophile tendencies.
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@Scotjimland: We have injury crisises EVERY YEAR. We’re the only team with injury crisises year after year. That in itself is an indication that the backroom staff need to be revisited.
All I can say of our position…it’s flaterring.
That in itself is an entirely different debate on its own.
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@Scotjimland: The ‘pedophile’ is currently ahead of us. The same kids who were written off at the start of the season.
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Speaking of young players,why do we breed so many of them? I mean some claim our youngsters are not good enough when they are harly tested on the big stage. Personally I’m not a big fan of Welbeck but everytime he has played he was played as a winger. Macheda has hardly featured this season for the first team. Now both players are stuck in no man’s land. They are training with the first team after being promoted but they are not given a chance to play,they can’t participate with the Reserves either due to their status as first team players. When they get a cameo appearance,the very predictable United fans place the usual unreasonable pressure on their shoulders. They are expected to set the stage on fire when the whole team has been stinking the joint up. If they don’t perform to the very high standards set by supporters within their little 15 min cameos it’s recorded as “they wasted their opportunities. How long can we keep waiting for them to show up?” We have way too many players at the club,and it won’t help our wage bills. But at least if some of these players were being utilised it would be justifiable. Sell all these young players and let’s not waste money and time anymore. Welbeck and Macheda are both fixtures in their nations’ junior teams so they have a reasonable value. I mean we already have young strikers coming up like Will Keane and the recently promoted Diouf. Add Josh King to that list and we have a number that can’t be managed.
After that we should sell a good number of our midfield players. After all the wage bill is the biggest expense of any football club. We,ve got a million midfield players. Why we keep offering players like Scholes new improved contracts is illogical. We could at least offer them significantly less wages. Anyway my point is,if we are not utilising the players then we should get rid of them. Nani,Anderson and one of Carrick or Scholes. It will also solve one big problem which takes 60% of the blame for our poor performances. IDIOTIC ROTATION. At least there won’t be enough players to rotate and we can have some consistency.
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@Karl: @point526 well clearly prefered team, The Derse, have been cumming, for 5 years, go support, I think Il Type in Gaelic, you might understand more.
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@Scotjimland: What’s funny about O’Hara and Bale. They both played regularly for Spurs. And that was the point. They were given enough chances
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@Jay wire: +1
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@Karl: point 532, that makes sense and needs investigated, well played and conveyed
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@Jay wire: there both fucking crap thats the point!
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@Jay wire: I know I might sound like a parrot by now, but all roads lead back to SAF. It appears that we are not as well managed as many believe we are.
@Scotjimland: No idea what you’re getting at. To be honest, not quite sure if I care to know either.
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@Jay wire: who is a pretty boy then
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Cast yer mind back laddie, we all know the history of club, its readily availiable if you dont.Please not in my view taint his achievements, it just dont hold water? how many managers, clubs have won 4 league titles in a row. Stop fucking around, whincing mincing, and massaging yer own ego, get behind the club, the players, we can do this. Forever United Are u???????????
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something fun to read while we wait for the weekend match
http://forums.goal.com/goal/board/message?board.id=general_soccer_discussion_en&thread.id=232168
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@EduardoDaVinci4:
Diouf is going to be good for us I have no doubt. I’ve been reading all the comments you leave about the guy and I can spot what you mean.
He moves cleverly in the box, and judging from tonight’s reserve game, he moves well all over the pitch.
But in the box in particular he brings something that Berba and Rooney lack. (From what little I’ve seen) he moves behind the ball and the defenders when he waits for the ball to come in, so instead of taking his place behind a defender or just being stationary in the box, he takes the correct position, ready to have the pace on the defender to challenge for the ball when it comes in. He’s like a type writer when it reaches its next line, if the ball is about to be crossed, then isn’t and moves further back, he pings back to his original position, ready to pounce when it enters the box. I like the guy.
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since no one has posted this yet
Reserves vs Sunderland goals here
Mame does have an eye for goal!! No more lone striker up front please
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@Karl: Good is not good enough. For me good means crap. I am a United supporter, i am used to excellent, exceptional, world class, not bloody good mate. Good is Spurs and Villa or Birmingham, I want excellent like Barca or Madrid.
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@gator: 50 bucks right now is pushing it mate.
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am fuckin sure the fuckin gettesburg adress is coming
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nite lads lets hope and be real, a win is a must on Sat, done deal, forever Red
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Does anybody have any news on how Hargreaves is coming along?
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