Manchester Teams Colourblind

There was a time, not so long ago, when the easiest distinction in football was between the two teams in Manchester. And it was easy; one wore red, one wore blue. One was a perenial powerhouse, one was perenially useless. One would ruthlessly dispose of smaller teams, the other would find a way to lose to an already-relegated bunch of has-beens and never-were-s.

Now, Man U have managed to start dropping points at every opportunity, whereas Man City have continued their statistically interesting run of beating Chelsea to emphasise their improvement over the past summer.

City were chastised after the game, percieved as negative due to their reliance on 3 'holding midfielders' .

Never mind the presence of David Silva (note to Alan Shearer; SILVA, not VILLA) and Carlos Tevez in the team, the thing that really annoyed me about that line of criticism is that it is inherently blinkered.

I don't condone the practice of using a sugar-daddy owner to buy in heaps of new players, but it now seems that every pundit in the land has forgotten how Chelsea did exactly what City have done. I do not particularly enjoy watching teams comprised mainly of defensive minded players throttle out results, but Chelsea got by doing the exact same thing for most of their rich years. Yes, even under Saint Jose.

It seems that 3 or 4 winning seasons and all previous criticism of how you managed to come about those wins disappears. It now appears that the media is only too quick to defend Chelsea, the apparently established and traditional big dogs of the Premiership, against upstarts like Man City who are only doing exactly what the Blues themselves did a mere 5 years ago. There is short-termism, and then there is supression of memory.

I didn't intend this article to become a passioned defence of City (I approve of the improvement their money has bought offering greater competition in the league, I overwhelmingly disapprove of the macroeconomic handling of football clubs in the way Man City are exemplifying), but a final point is that the 'holding midfielders' Toure, Barry and De Jong are criticised when all they do is provide a solid base, much like Makelele and Essien have for Chelsea and Keane and Scholes did for Man U (to much acclaim and no criticism) and keep the ball moving, much like the vaunted midfield of media darlings Barcelona.

Mentioning Keane and Scholes, there are of course two teams in Manchester, and as I alluded to earlier I'm going to give a brief comment to the Red Devils as well.

I predicted that Man U would become long in the tooth this year, and that they would finish 3rd. While men like Scholes and Giggs have proven me wrong on my first prediction (Wrong this time. Seriously, they HAVE to slow down some time!), I am pretty confident that my view of where they will finish the season will be correct.

The Wayne Rooney fiasco has been detrimental to the club. Scandals like that simply did not used to happen at Old Trafford, and anyone who caused trouble (ahem, Beckham and the flying football boot) were swiftly disposed of. I wouldn't be surprised if that happens to Rooney at the end of this year.

A positive has emerged from Rooney-Gate. A rejuvinated Dimitar Berbatov seems to have flourished due to the team finally choosing to adapt to his style of play. Why Sir Alex didn't do anything about the Berbatov issue earlier I have no idea, and it is one of my main criticisms of him; he has a precedent of buying expensively with a grand rebranding of the team style in mind, only to then prioritise short term results and put the big changes on hold, thus wasting the player in question. See the case of Veron for the best example. I think the ambition Sir Alex showed in signing him, and wishing to turn Man U into a ball control team much like Arsenal were at that time and the current Man U side are trying to be, was highly laudible. Just imagine how far superior that team would have been to anyone else in England or Europe (especially when Cristiano Ronaldo turned up... ).

Back in the real world, Fergie has also failed to address the defensive shortcomings that were obvious last year. The result is that the indecisive defense, coupled with less creativity and goal threat from Rooney, leaves United vulnerable to teams that keep the ball, pressure when not in possession and organise themselves well in defence. Teams like Bolton. Teams like Chelsea, and now, especially teams like Man City.

GM