Ultimate United
United should Ditch the Bus against City 5 Apr 2018 21:47
Ahead of this weekend’s Manchester Derby, we look at why a ditching the bus might be United’s best chance of winning.
By Philip Meese, Chief Editor
The Manchester Derby takes place this weekend, and it has the potential for the Blues to rub their rivals’ faces in the mud. As the entire country knows, a victory for Manchester City will ensure that they are crowned Premier League champions.
When the two teams met at Old Trafford in December, Manchester United approached the game as though they were the away side. They looked afraid of them, playing defensively and showing them far too much respect. Had City won that game by three goals, the scoreline wouldn’t have flattered them at all.
So far this season, Liverpool have played two home matches against City, and have put seven goals past them. This surely shows that the best way to beat Guardiola’s side is not to sit there and defend. Liverpool’s 3-0 Champions League win over City showed exactly why parking the bus would be the wrong way for José Mourinho to approach this weekend’s Derby.
Defence
City’s biggest weakness is their defensive frailties, and Liverpool have exposed this in their two games against them. Even when Vincent Kompany, by far their best centre-back, is fit they don’t have a settled back line, and haven’t really had one since Joleon Lescott left. This is one of the reasons why they struggled against Liverpool when coming under heavy attack. Another reason they seemed unsure defensively is that their defence doesn’t get tested very often. Most teams are afraid to attack them, due to the fact that everyone has seen what their attack can do, due to the power of their midfield, and the pace of their forwards.
Had United approached the Derby in the same way that Liverpool approached their last two games against City, the title race might actually have lasted a bit longer. They might even have had something still to play for going into this weekend’s game, other than just local pride. As soon as City won at Old Trafford, even the most optimistic United fan knew that the title race was all but over. A victory in that match might have changed the whole momentum for both clubs, to say nothing of the effect on their respective levels of confidence. City probably would have still won the title in the end, as they have a superior squad, but who knows.
City’s current side mirrors Pep Guardiola teams of the past in one particular way. He has never been the most defensive coach, and on occasion those frailties have been exposed. A good example of this would be when his Bayern side shipped four at home to Real Madrid. Fortunately, most teams don’t have the quality to get anywhere near his defence to test them like this, and that has proved to be the case at City this season
Liverpool have shown that the best way to get at City is to attack them, and expose the area where they are least solid, at the back. What United did last time out was to invite City to attack, which they have showed time and time again that they are fantastic at. Why give them an open invitation to do that by playing defensively.
Attacking Force
The baffling thing for most United fans about the defensive manner of their play is that it’s not as though they don’t have any decent attacking options. Romelu Lukaku has already scored 26 goals this season, despite criticism from certain parties. Alexis Sánchez might not have set the world on fire since his arrival, but has proved himself at Premier League level over the last four years Paul Pogba is much more useful in an attacking role, as opposed to the more conservative one he has been tasked with at times this season. Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard have all proved that they are capable of giving defences headaches. Liverpool have given them migraines by having a go at them.
The last thing City will expect at the Etihad this weekend is United going all-out attack against them. This is exactly the reason they should try it. Sure, City might hammer them if they try a gung-ho approach but, in fairness, they might do anyway that if United park the bus. Playing defensively, it’s hard to envisage any outcome other than City being crowned champions at the full time whistle.
Will the Bus be Parked?
The style of Mourinho’s brand of football has always come in for criticism, and not always fairly. There is no question that his speciality is setting up a side not to get beat. It was a particular bugbear of Roman Abramovich, however, history suggests that this has not always been his only way of winning matches.
In three years at Real Madrid, Mourinho’s side scored an average of 158 goals per season – 475 goals in total. During his first stint at Stamford Bridge, his Chelsea side put four goals past Barcelona and Bayern Munich. They also scored 72 league goals in both 2004-05 and 2005-06. This is hardly indicative that they were playing the type of football seen from United this season.
The evidence seems to suggest that he switches to a park-the-bus mentality only when he absolutely needs to. He won the 2009-10 Champions League with Inter, and they were nowhere near being the best team in Europe. Mourinho’s way of making a side difficult to beat made the Nerazurri European Champions for the first time in 45 years.
The fact that United seem to play this way every week seems to tell its own story. It’s as though he doesn’t trust the backline enough to let them do their jobs on their own, and let the rest of his troops off the leash. Last month, United made Sevilla, a pretty ordinary side, look like a world class team. They showed far too much respect to a side that had done nothing to deserve it.
At Chelsea, Mourinho just played a flat back four, marshalled by John Terry, with Claude Makélélé providing extra cover. This allowed the more attack minded players like Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Arjen Robben and Damien Duff to go and do what they were best at. The way the current United team is set up shows that he clearly doesn’t have the same faith in them as he did with that side.
Final Thought
Even if Mourinho doesn’t trust his players enough to let them off the leash on a regular basis, what exactly has he got to lose by trying it? It would take a monumental collapse for United to drop out of the top four, and it’s not as though their title hopes hinge on them getting a result; they were over by Christmas. Even if City don’t win the title this weekend, any result for United would only delaying the inevitable anyway. The Blues are going to win the Premier League, nothing can stop that, and they will be worthy champions
A lot of United fans would rather see them go out and try to win the game and get beat 5-0, than play defensively and maybe snatch a draw. If they did at least attempt to play attacking football, and actually got a result, it could a massive confidence boost, with not only next season in mind. There’s an FA Cup semi-final on the horizon against Tottenham, the only hope of silverware United actually have this season.
The reality of it is that Mourinho will play in the cautious, defence-minded manner that has been the norm for most of this season. He will most likely not want to be embarrassed by his old rival Guardiola. It would be nice, however, if he at least tried to play him at his own game.
Despite what happened at Anfield the other night, it is still probably the last thing City will expect Mourinho to do.
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