Derby day awaits

Hello again. First of all, thank you to the people who have commented on my blog so far via Facebook or e-mail. It is always nice to hear what people think of what I write, after all I have taken the time to do it, so it is good to realise that I am not talking to myself. So keep the comments coming, be they positive, negative or indifferent and also let me know if there is anything you would like me to talk about in one of my future blogs, or if you have any questions would like me to answer.

So, we made it through the week and so for myself, and hopefully a good majority of the readers of this blog, some time to enjoy some leisure and relaxation for a couple of days. My Sunday afternoon will be spent down the pub enjoying a combination that was a pleasurable norm for me for much of my twenties, namely Guinness and football. A chance to catch up with a few friends while hoping for the right result.

As you may recall from my question and answer blog from last weekend, my team of choice is Manchester United. At some point in the next few weeks I will explain how this 30 year old born and bred Brightonian has been a supporter of a team more than 200 miles away since the age of seven, rather than supporting the team in the Tesco bag shirt from his home town.

But I digress, for now. Tomorrow's live football fix involves two mouth watering matches in the Premier League with my particular vested interest coming in the first match, where it is derby day as Manchester United travel across the city to play Manchester City. This is always a big match and in recent seasons, City have been a source of irritation. Last season they did the double over United in the league, including being the only visiting team to win at Old Trafford in the league all season. That match was played a few days after the fiftieth anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster with both teams wearing 1950s retro style kits. The burden of the occasion got to United that day and City fully capitalised.

Since then, a change of ownership with a Bahraini prince having taken over from shamed former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra at Eastlands has resulted in City being one of the few businesses looking upwards in these times of economic uncertainty. City now have designs on being a major force in English and European football and pulled off their first major coup when they signed Brazilian winger/forward Robinho for £30 million from Real Madrid on transfer deadline day in August, from under the noses of Chelsea. Even so, City's designs on breaking into the "elite" of English football is premature. As things stand, City are eleventh in the Premier League table and are still several players away from having the kind of squad required to challenge for major honours and it is unlikely they will finish in the Premier League's top six this season.

You may be surprised to learn that I do not have any particularly dislike of Man City. Sure, I hate it when they beat us and because of their recent results against us, I really hope we serve up a cold dish of revenge tomorrow afternoon. But I think the rivalry with City is something that is more important to people that live in Manchester. City have not ever been a threat so far as competing for honours in the time I have supported United and so for the most part, I am indifferent to them and am quite happy when they pull off a result against one of our title rivals like Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal. When City dropped down to what is now League One a few years ago, I was quite pleased when they got promoted and latterly made it back into the Premier League. I came to regret that a little when City then preceded to beat United two seasons running after their return, but on the whole, there are other teams who I like us to beat more. Liverpool being the main one, then Arsenal and then Chelsea. And even though they no longer remain in the same division, I am always pleased to see Leeds United lose.

There are other reasons why I have a bit of time for Man City these days as well. First of all, they are managed by Mark "Sparky" Hughes, who may manage City but as a player was a fantastic servant to United in two spells as a player. The time I started getting into football and supporting United, I had just missed Sparky's first spell at United when he left for a couple of years and played for Barcelona along with Gary Lineker and then had a brief time at Bayern Munich. But I do remember Sparky's second spell at United and he was one of my favourite players when I was growing up and an important part of Manchester United's first Premier League winning team. He was always my kind of footballer, strong, aggressive but also very skillful. If you kicked him, he'd kick you back harder. And he also had the knack of scoring important goals. Two matches in particular spring to mind. One was in the European Cup Winners' Cup final in 1991 when he scored both goals to defeat his old club, Barcelona, his second goal in that match was a gem. Then in 1994, United played Oldham Athletic in the FA Cup semi-final and were losing 1-0 with 30 seconds of extra time left. The ball was knocked to the edge of the penalty area where Hughes blasted a trademark volley into the top corner. United won the replay and went on to win the league and cup double that season.

I can remember the day Mark Hughes left United as a player to join Chelsea. It was the hot summer of 1995 and a few weeks earlier, this then 17 year old author had bought a T-shirt with the great man's image on the front of it. And then a month later, Sparky had left to sign for Chelsea. It is a sign of the esteem I held Sparky in though that I still wore the T-shirt even after he had stopped playing for us. And to be fair, there are more painful examples of football supporters showing their devotion to players only for them to up sticks. The best one I can think of was the Newcastle supporter who had the image of Andy Cole tattooed on his leg only for Cole to be sold to Manchester United a few days later. There's one Geordie who I imagine never wears shorts!

Hughes is a lot greyer now than he was when he played but he has transferred the competitiveness and fight he had as a player into being a manager really well. I remember a couple of seasons ago when Hughes was manager of Blackburn and his team played against Arsenal and there was an incident where Arsene Wenger was trying to waste some time in order to issue some instructions to his players and was holding on to the ball. Hughes came racing out of his position to take the ball off him and throw it back on the field. That summed Hughes up, no respecter of reputations and he possesses a "doer's" attitude.

The other reason I have some time for City is that they have some players who are worth watching. I mentioned Robinho earlier, and he has been a good signing so far for City, as he proved with his goal in City's win over Arsenal last weekend. Some Brazilian players in the past have struggled to adapt to the physical nature of the Premier League and also the biting cold of the English winter, but the signs are that Robinho is adjusting well.

But the player who I particularly think is worthy of mention is Stephen Ireland. The City midfielder has, for my money, all 75 pence tucked in my back pocket, been City's best player of the season so far and one of the top performers in the Premier League this season. And for all of City's riches that I have spoken about, Ireland did not cost City a penny as he came through their academy. Ireland reminds me in the way that he plays of one of Man United's recent greats, Paul Scholes, in that both players like to break from deep positions in midfield to burst into the box and score goals, and both players possess good touch and vision. The similarities between Ireland and Scholes are not just confined to their on-field performances. Ireland, like Scholes, has retired from playing for his country, in his case the country of his surname, at the tender age of 22. Press reports will have you believe that Ireland's retirement from playing for the Emerald Isle was because his team-mates ribbed him out about his premature loss of hair. Whatever reason, the Republic of Ireland's loss is certainly Manchester City's gain as he has been terrific for them this season and I hope he continues his good form, but happens to abandon it tomorrow.

Manchester United have had a reasonable season to date, but I think our best football is yet to come. When the fixtures came out at the start of the season, I fully expected United to be trailing in the title race by Christmas. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, there are two rounds of matches where United are inactive because of their commitments in the European Super Cup and World Club Championship, by virtue of them winning the Champions League last season. Secondly, the fixture computer handed United all their tough away matches in the first half of the season. United have already gone to Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, from which they took the grand sum of one point, and the first half of the season has also taken in fixtures at Portsmouth, Aston Villa and Everton, with Manchester City next and their following away match at White Hart Lane against in-form Tottenham. The good thing is that if United can get to the New Year in contention, all the top teams still have to visit Old Trafford and United's away matches in the second half of the season will mainly be against teams in the lower end of the Premier League.

The uncertainty over Cristiano Ronaldo's future I think has played a role too. Ronaldo has agreed to stay at United for now, but I am not sure whether there is a piece of his heart that remains in Madrid. Portugal and Spain as countries are the greatest of rivals and for a Portuguese footballer, the opportunity of playing for the biggest club in Spain and proving he is the best player around is probably the ultimate ambition. Ronaldo is a very driven and determined player and I would imagine this mirrors his characteristics as a person, so if he really wants to go to Madrid, I imagine he will eventually. His form this season has not hit the heights he found last season when he was the catalyst in United winning both the Premier League and Champions League, scoring over 40 goals in the process. He has also found himself even more of a marked man this season, quite literally in the match against Villarreal. A series of fouls on him by the Spanish team in the 0-0 draw on Tuesday night left Ronaldo with plenty of bruises on his legs.

In recent weeks, United have played some decent football but have lacked a bit of cutting edge in the final third of the pitch. Their build-up play has often been neat and their pace and movement has continued to cause teams problems. But their play in the last third of the pitch has often not matched the quality that has gone before and that is why United have struggled a bit for goals in their recent matches. I think one reason for this has been the absence of Dimitar Berbatov to injury. United's summer signing had just been beginning to find good form and was forging a good partnership with Wayne Rooney when he picked up his injury. Rooney himself has seen his form dip in the past few games having been in such fantastic form for club and country earlier on in the season. Rooney does have a very good goalscoring record against Manchester City though, so hopefully he will keep this up tomorrow.

I think that United have the right type of game to defeat Manchester City tomorrow. City are an attack minded team and they play an open, expansive game. They will take the game to United more than City's team did under Sven Goran Eriksson did last season. But while City are good when they are in possession, they are susceptible to teams who counter attack them and sometimes can be imbalanced. United certainly have the players to exploit counter attack situations and if the game becomes open, the chances should present themselves for United, particularly in view of the fact that City's central defensive pairing of Richard Dunne and Micah Richards have both struggled for form this season.

There are perhaps 2 particular areas and players that United need to be mindful of. Robinho is likely to patrol Man City's left hand flank and then cut inside. This is a problem area of the pitch for United at the moment with Wes Brown currently injured and Gary Neville having also had one or two niggles of late. This leaves United with a choice of Rafael Da Silva, who is a great prospect and good at going forward, but who is still naive positionally when it comes to defending, or John O' Shea whose distribution is often disappointing and equally so is his crossing. The thought of O' Shea being up against Robinho is a slightly scary thought and so I hope that if Gary Neville is not fit in time that Rafael gets the call.

The other battle I think that will go a long way to determining who comes out on top is between Stephen Ireland and Michael Carrick. I mentioned earlier how Ireland has played tremendously well for City of late, well Carrick has performed very well for United since he came back from injury. Carrick is not what you would term an all-action midfielder and so sometimes he does have his detractors and does not get the credit he deserves. The fact is that he is a deep lying midfielder who carries out his defensive duties well. Even though he does not go flying in and make crunching tackles, he reads play well and makes a lot of vital interceptions that turn a defensive situation into an attacking one and he is capable of driving runs forward from midfield into the penalty box and he uses the ball tidily and intelligently. My one criticism of Carrick is that I think he should score more goals than he does from midfield, he strikes the ball cleanly and takes up good positions, so really a midfielder of his kind should be getting 8-10 goals a season.

I think Carrick being on the pitch could restrict Stephen Ireland's effectiveness tomorrow though. Ireland often comes from very deep positions to bomb forward into attacking positions but I think because Carrick poses a threat also in coming forward, this will constrain Ireland's bursts forward and peg him back into his own half. If Carrick can keep Ireland in check this will deny City of one of their most potent supply lines to their attacking players. City's striker Benjani has scored a couple of goals against United in the past and can be quite a handful, so if by keeping Ireland quiet it also keeps Benjani quiet then that will be a bonus.

It promises to be a good match and I am optimistic that United will get back on track with a win. I feel that United need to win every league match they play up until they play Chelsea in early January in order to stand a real chance of clawing back the deficit in the New Year. City's style of play will provide United with gaps to exploit as the game gets stretched and after some very stoic defending by City in recent derby matches, I think they must be due a match where they make some mistakes and gift United a chance or two, especially given that City have been conceding plenty of goals. So I am going to call United to win this match 3-1, although, be warned, my predicting has been terrible this season. Hopefully I will be toasting a red victory this time tomorrow. Sorry Sparky.