Manchester United vs Manchester City
Red vs Blue
Age-old rivalry.
As if a Manchester derby needs more hype, this year sees the rivalry between Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola renewed. Both managers have assembled brilliant squads by shelling out money, and both have seen their teams start with 3 wins from 3. Both are being seen as early season title contenders and whoever wins this match will surely make a statement in the Premier League. And of course both these managers would love to put one over their old rival.
Sergio Aguero is suspended, which is disapoointing, because if he was there we would have another subplot of seeing Aguero against Ibra, two of the Golden Boot contenders.
The whole world will be watching when two heavyweights collide in what is sure to be a very closely contested match. I, for one, can't make up my mind on who is going to win. It is surely the most anticipated Manchester derby in recent years.
Thoughts?

Mourinho is parking the bus first 10 min...

Well my prediction was correct till now.

Bad choices from United lucky Sterling is in shit form as usual in big games...

Mkhytarian, Lindgaard and Fellaini were wrong choices, I would have played possession players Mata, Martial, Hererra for example...

De Bruyne is showing what he really is to the idiot that sold him.

Well well well looks like Mou wants to play forward in second leg, 2 subs I guess he couldn't make the third his only remaining, should have started a full attack team and trust his players....

I was waiting for Nasri to replace Sterling but I completely forgot he left, well Sane in. I would have subbed Sterling earlier.

Bravo was so poor he let United come back to the game, but at least it was really good game until the final whistle.

Not sure how I feel after that. A few notes:

I thought before the season that City would finish first, United second. I saw nothing to change that opinion.

United in the first half was a fucking trainwreak. It wasn't necessarily on the players either, but instead was a bad tactical misplay by Mou and an excellent stroke by Pep. De Bruyne playing between the two CB's and two CM's became hard to mark, and impossible to track, which resulted in both City goals. After the first goal, it wasn't obvious that that was the root cause, but as the game went on, it became stupidly obvious. Mou did sub on Herrera to fix that (which he did fantastically) but the damage was already done.

Claudio Bravo was the second-worst player on the pitch. He looked shaky all game, should've been whistled for a pk for his Rooney challenge, and as soon as United took away his easy passes in the second half, he looked lost. I expect that closing down the back four to become the staple of teams playing City, and as we saw, it took away every positive aspect of Bravo, making me wonder again, why on earth did City take him over Joe Hart?

But I say Bravo was the second-worst player on the pitch because of one person. It's not Jesse Lingard, who did very little, but instead because of Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Jesus Christ, he was awful. He didn't do a positive thing all game and turned the ball over whenever he had it. His lackluster press contributed to the first City goal (would it kill you to not jog motherfucker?) and he was totally useless in every aspect of the game - from United's perspective anyway, I'm sure City loved him kick starting their attacks. It was really disappointing, because what we saw at Hull was a dynamic game-changing player - what we saw here was everything Rooney is accused of being: fat, slow, lazy, bad passes, bad first touch, etc. Made me appreciate Rooney more if nothing else.

Eric Bailly didn't jump for the flick-on that resulted in the first City goal. Mistake? Yes. But he made up for it with a final 75 minutes of jaw-dropping defending. It would take more than one hand to count all the last-ditch tackles he made on odd-man counterattacks, and it's frankly totally down to him that City never scored a third.

I want Smalling. I don't know where I want him, but I want him.

Rashford did really well in his first 10 minutes, but didn't do much for the rest of the game. I'm kind of liking the idea of him being that super-sub until he figures out how to contribute for longer periods of time. I was surprised to see him at halftime instead of Martial, who, when he came on, didn't do much either. Not sure how I feel about those two right now, but I'm having concerns about their wing play - after all they're both strikers.

De Bruyne did well due to Pep's tactics, but the best player on the field for me today was Fernandinho. This guy worked the CDM position like his life depended on it, and in the process produced on of the finest CDM games I think I've ever seen in all my years of watching this game. MOTM for me.

It's rare I hate a player. I want to make that clear before I go into this tirade. Nolitio is the biggest bitch I have seen play in the BPL, and it's not even close. Get touched, dive. Get fouled, go down and roll around. Tries to talk shit to Fellaini, and then gets angry when he doesn't win a physical contest against someone twice his size. Get out. He's going to get injured if he keeps that up, and I don't think I'd be sorry to see it.

United's finishing was really poor. I don't want to give anyone in particular too much crap, because our chances weren't great quality ones, and Bravo gifted us our goal, but at the end of the game I realized that City had been hitting posts, forcing great saves from De Gea, and despite Bravo's wanker of a game, we never really challenged him. I'm not sure he had to save a single shot on target all game. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE? We bossed the midfield in the second half, had possession in their half, Stones played pretty badly (although Otamedni was fantastic) so how did we not make good shots? I honestly don't have an answer.

But on the bright side, Old Trafford was rocking. We went down 2-0, and they were still rocking. The 2nd half was a near constant howling of support that never wavered, not even at the end. I'm proud of that.

This was one of the most exicting, open games I've ever seen. And I have to give stick to Mou, for getting tactically fucked in the first half. But he himself then said "oh the hell with it" and threw what was basically 5 forwards, 4 defenders and 1 midfielder for the last 30 minutes. I got to give credit where it's due, it's a miracle City never scored a third, but nevertheless it was a ballsy move from Mou that almost (and maybe should've) won him the game.

One final note, I have no issues with Clattenburg. I disagree with him about the no-call on Bravo's Rooney challenge, I think that if you go studs up into a player and don't cleanly win the ball (a.k.a maintaining possession) it should be called. according to the rulebook (which I don't agree with, lul) any studs up challenge is a foul. That being said I respect the professional decision of Clattenburg to not call it, as I'm not convinced I would have either if it had been the other way (i.e. De Gea on Sterling). Therefore, no complaints, and I think he had a fantastic game.

Winning against the big teams is not important, winning against the small teams gets you the title.

The first half was all City, and De Bruyne impressed very much. United really poor, and we have away possession to many times. Lingard shouldn't have played, Mata should've. We fans knew it would take time for Mourinho's team to gel, and any false hopes we had after the first three games were dashed. We never really pressed City, and if not for Bravo's hesitancy, City would've been way more comfortable. I still think we can win the league tho if Ibra continues his form and Pogba finds his best. He shouldn't have played Mkhitaryan, because he just had an injury with his national team.

Bravo was utter crap .. Played like an amateur .

Mourinho said after the game (presumably about Mkhitaryan and Lingard) - "There are one or two players, that if I had known how the game would have turned out, I would not have picked. Sometimes players surprise managers, and sometimes they disappoint them." Then he all but said explicitly that those few players were responsible for the dismal first half showing.
He's right in a way, and Mkhitaryan and Lingard need to be spoken to, but whether saying stuff like this in public is wise move, I'm not sure. This is dangerously close to his infamous "i was betrayed by my players" speech he gave after which he was sacked at Chelsea last year.
Well, Mourinho was always sure to bring controversy.

@SunFlash: excellent stuffs mate.

@saatvik & @Sun: Mou struck us again with his stupid controversy. He made a tactical error, he took the risk, if it had worked he would have turned out to be a genius (the probability is not that high, but we played at home so...) in another word, he made a stupid tactical error trying to be special. Now, he blame it on the players? That's the LAST FREAKIN thing they need right now.

It was a great game. MC looked better than us, that's the fact. But we weren't that bad and if we work on the right path, and Mou wont play his stupid mind game, this lost might benefit us on the long run.

@chelsea: true that!

@Marcus: yeahhh, the guy fuked up big time, got nervous and the whole game he was shaking it's almost laughable.

@tuan_jinn Proof that playing in spain as nothing to do with playing in england, its a whole other universe. Too bad for mourinho, he didn't make the right choice but I was pretty happy to see he was able to fix his mistake quickly after a while, considering how bad Bravo was, United was a bit unlucky not to score a equaliser. Sad results for United, great results for City but to be sincere, what I will remember of this game is what an upgrade we got from the same game last year, we literaly went from one of the most boring game I saw last season to one of the most exciting one. Great work from both Mourinho and Pep, they are clearly turning their respective team around. Wish them the best, continue making great game for us fan. :D

@saatvik "It was not just about them [Mkhitaryan and Lingard]. Other players were also not playing really well," Mourinho told reporters after after his side fell three points behind Premier League leaders City. "Obviously, it was my decision. I don't like to go in the direction of the players and single out players. Let's say our team didn't play well in the first half and the responsibility is my responsibility."
Well, it doesn't erase the fact he calling his player out on the defeat but at least, he does say that it is his responsibility, better than expected from Mourinho. No idea if he will keep this way of thinking in the future.

saatvik10

Lingard isn't good enough, I'm certain of that.

But Mkhitaryan is a little different. Mourinho definitely made a mistake with not playing him in the first some league games. He can't expect somebody to play well if a derby is his first start.

Also Mkhitaryan isn't a winger. He's at his best when he can play at CAM.

So I think Mourinho made a crucial fail with not giving Mkhitaryan game time before, and with playing him in the wrong position.

@Phenohyte The thing with Lingard is that he is sometime very good and sometime very bad. He won United both the FA Cup and Community Shield though with his goal so saying he isn't good enough is a bit harsh. I mean, most of the time, he is brillant but for some reason, he didn't seem in form in this one occassion. ;p

Lingard came through big time for us last season. Irrelevant what the average fan thinks, he's earned his right to have a shot at it, that's how it works.