Moyes still no good at winning derbies

When the fixture list came out, it was believed, and rightly so, that among all the big clubs, United had the toughest first few fixtures. His first six games included Chelsea (H), Liverpool (A) and Manchester City (A). With last of those three games coming up United had already failed to pick up all three points against either Chelsea or Liverpool.

Against Chelsea, it was largely due to Mourinho’s tactics that they gained only one point. Against Liverpool, they were not good enough. So a derby victory was something that the team needed to kick their campaign off to a start.

A derby, or any big game for that matter, is often won by individual brilliance. City, for that matter, had the likes of Aguero and Toure to make a difference. United had the ever reliable Wayne Rooney and the prolific Robin van Persie to provide them with the attacking firepower. So, all the fans around the world were expecting goals to flow from both sides. Unfortunately, or fortunately if you are a City fan, van Persie had to pull out of the game with a groin injury.

And this breaking team news for everyone watching the pre-match show turned out to be a psychological blow for Moyes. So, inevitably, he went with Rooney, Welbeck, Valencia and Young as the front four. Carrick and their new “marquee” signing Fellaini sat in the center of midfield. Even with the loss of their key man, United were expected to go at City with all they had. But as it turned out, they didn’t.

From the first whistle, Kompany and co, as expected, were at it. There was, as their should have been from United as well, a certain aggression in everything City were trying. Even Matija Nastasic, a young defender who is yet to become an established center half, was flying into tackles and he even got booked for a towering header on Valencia, who like other United players, was anonymous.

United were as poor as City were good. Both first half goals were a result of complacency from the poor United side. And credit to City that they capitalized on it. Valencia should have tracked Kolarov’s run, who provided Aguero with the cross that he very craftily put it past De Gea. And considering that Valencia’s starting position was as good as he would have liked, he just forgot that there was a full back bombing down that side trying to cause problems.

Then just before half time, as Nasri took the corner and Negredo flicked it on, Toure had a free tap-in thanks to poor decision making from Fellaini, who was with his man for the majority of the time and just as the ball was delivered, let him run free.

Then there was the second half. A little bit of good movement and a beautiful piece of skill resulted in a cross from Negredo. And again Aguero found himself in acres of space inside the six-yard box from where he made no mistake. All of a sudden the away side were three goals down.

The fourth goal was then again not very good defending from the away side. Navas went down the right wing and he went on going, or was allowed to, until he made up his mind to cross the ball. He picked out Nasri far post who was unmarked and he buried his volley into the net. It took United over 85 minutes to start showing some intent and by that time, needless to say, it was too late. Rooney scored a brilliant free kick but it was never going to be enough.

This was just an example of how United might fair this season. They were unable to get the desired results against any of the big sides they have played till now. But the answer to the question as to why the results have been such is very simple. Manchester United, despite all the talks and rumors in the press, failed to make a signing of substantial importance.

Arsenal got their marquee signing, Chelsea got 3-4 good players, their neighbours City also spent big as they have in the recent past and all United got was a 25 million Fellaini. Moyes and the Board surely might have had a few targets in mind but their failure to seal the deals saw them capturing only one player, which I personally believe was the backup plan.

The lack of transfer activity, one might think, could have been due to the Fergie factor. Previously when a player used to hear rumors about interest from The Reds, he never needed a second invitation to come work under the greatest manager ever. Now with Moyes at the helm, the club cannot really lure those quality players away from their respective clubs.

But now Moyes will have to do with the squad that he has. He will have to play a midfield that lacks a quality playmaker. He has to depend on Van Persie and Rooney to steer them to at least one trophy so that he doesn’t come under much scrutiny. And finally, he must hope that he has no major injury problems in defence which is worse than their attacking force. All I can hope as a Premier League fan is that he and his squad put up a fight for the title. As far as the team’s European journey is concerned, I can’t see them going too far.