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Plenty of Financial Ambition, but no Tactical

Published by Ian John on November 11, 2010

Well, what did you make of Manchester City’s performance last night?

Considering this was a derby game against their most fierce and successful rivals, I found City’s tactics astonishing and endemic of the crippling fear displayed by many teams in football at present.

I am prepared to give United a little slack here. The one thing you cannot accuse United of over the past 25 years or so, is a lack of entertainment or attacking ambition. So the fact that they altered their system to get the best result at Eastlands is entirely their choice. I do not think United set out to play negatively, just that the way the game ended up, it looked that way.

Most of the blame for last nights bore-draw, which was so boring it made me hanker for a game of crown-green bowls, rests at the feet of Roberto Mancini and his utterly cautious team selection and tactics.

City played the game on the counter, they had Tevez in attack, supported by five midfielders. When City got into great positions to get the ball into the box and delivered it thus, there was nobody there to take advantage. It was the team selection of the tactically astute but the frightened. Indeed, I got the impression at the very start of the game that both teams would have happily raised the white flag and accepted a 0-0 from the moment he game started.

The fact that the one player City were crying out for, Adebayor, did not get on until two minutes into injury time, speaks volumes for the cowardly tactics employed by Mancini. Instead of being brave and trying to win the game, which his team are clearly capable of doing, he instead played the percentages and made sure they didn’t lose the game. United, followed suit and what followed was an indictment of the modern game.

There has already been a lot of talk about Blackpool on the same night. For their trip to Aston Villa, Ian Holloway made ten changes to the team at the weekend that drew with Everton. There are already rumours that Blackpool could be fined for fielding an ‘under-strength’ side against Aston Villa. What utter tosh.

At least Blackpool, regardless of what 11 players played, tried to WIN the game against Villa. They adhered to the principles of the game far more so than the cautionary nonsense played out at Eastlands last night. So what are the FA going to do? Punish Blackpool for making changes to their team and say nothing about the negativity permeating from Manchester. Laughable, it really is, when you consider they are supposed to act with the interests of the game at heart.

I do not blame United for one moment. Sir Alex Ferguson was the away team and came with a game plan. The onus was on City to try and stop that. Mancini opted not to and chose negativity first.

If this is the way the Premier League is going then I have only one thing to say.

Bring on the Crown Green bowling, I’m chucking my football scarf in the bin and picking up the flat cap and pipe.

Image Courtesy of ***Stormcruiser1960*** on Picturebox.com

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