It's been awhile since I've written on requests and honestly I've never been busier but I just thought I'd post on this to shut a certain Mark Hughes up.
I watched the whole match from start to end, and I feel that it was definitely unfair for Ferguson to say that Man Utd could have been up by 7 goals because face it, Man Utd isn't what it used to be. I think its plainly evident to everyone now that this is the weakest United team in ages, and I think even mid table clubs that play their cards right have a very good chance of taking the game to Man Utd.
By mid table clubs, I don't mean self-destructing clowns like Arsenal, clubs with stupid managers (aka Mark Hughes) like Man City, or random promoted teams like Burnley who always seem to beat Man Utd the first season they come up, for some strange reason.
This Man Utd team is a shadow of its former self without Ronaldo. I think Ferguson is too proud to admit that his team is a lot poorer without 40 goals a season Ronaldo, but now that they have been deprived of what was their major match winner for the past 2 seasons, I think its fair to say that they are still finding their feet.
Valencia is fast and crosses decent but he is not Ronaldo. Berbatov is a waste of space but Ferguson has few other forwards. I suspect its because he realises Owen is on a pay by appearance wage bill and hence he's trying to underutilise him.
Carrick can go eat shit because he's only half the player Fletcher is. Park is no longer useful because last season his role was to run, tackle, get the ball and pass to Ronaldo. This season there is no more Ronaldo, so he has nobody to pass to.
Anderson is improving but he's still not Paul Scholes. And Scholes still can't tackle but that's an old joke. O'Shea? Who cares about O'Shea. Half the time you don't even realise he's on the pitch because he does nothing.
I think the main stars for United this season, surprisingly, are Fletcher and Giggs. I used to cringe whenever Fletcher came on but I have to admit he's been pretty stellar in the middle of the park this season. Hargreaves can start looking for a new job because he's not going to get his place back. As for Giggs, he's always a danger whenever he has the ball, and his set piece delivery has more than saved United's season. He created 3 of United goals, which is crazy when you realise that it basically means without him United would have lost, and badly too.
Now, I'm going to talk about why Mark Hughes is an idiot. It might be true that Man Utd got an extra minute for ET, but Mark Hughes wasted 20 in normal time by moving Ireland to the left. Ferguson substituted Valencia for Park because he realised that Park was not having any effect on the Man City game. He was hoping that the pace of Valencia would cause Bridge problems. Bridge is definitely the weakest player in the Man City lineup, because he is slow for a leftback and hardly defensively solid, so I can see why Fergie targetted that position.
And what did Hughes do? He panicked, lost his marbles and moved Ireland to the left to counter Valencia. That was seriously a what the fuck moment for me. Up to that point the midfield of Ireland, Barry and De Jong was bossing the shit out of the United midfield of Anderson and Fletcher, starving Rooney of possession up front.
By moving Ireland left, it meant moving Bellamy to the centre, which was beyond weird, because Bellamy would have done a better job neutralising Valencia anyway. Bellamy is a winger whose game is based on pace, he's not a passer. Ireland's a playmaker, he's not a defender, and he's definitely not as fast.
So it meant Hughes just moved a slower player to counter the faster player put on by United, and in addition, this slower player was his playmaker, who had been giving United problems up to then. Was it any surprise that for a certain period in the second half the possession of Man Utd went to 72%-28%? I don't think so.
And I have no idea why Hughes was even that worried about Valencia because really, who has Valencia got to cross to? Berbatov? Hardy har har. Fletcher would not even have had the chance to go upfield had Hughes not shifted Ireland because he'd be too busy trying to save United's midfield.
My solution for Man City is, with all that money, just sack Hughes and get a better manager. Hughes is not a big team manager. He can save clubs from relegation, but he will never win a premier league trophy. Not in this life.