United look tired and deflated

Posted Tuesday, April 09, 2013 by The Sun

United look tired and deflated
ROO-FUL ... a dejected- looking Wayne Rooney

AND so what did it all mean in the end?

Not a great deal.

Sure, there was a sublime Manchester City winner from substitute Sergio ‘Kun’
Aguero that brought back memories of the final day of last season.

And, though it’s no more than delaying the inevitable, the United title party stays on hold.

And, yes, City get the local bragging rights for a day or so.

But what, in fact, are they really worth when United remain 12 points clear at the top with just seven games to go?

It’s still a terrible reflection on manager Roberto Mancini’s shambolic defence of City’s title.

As for the 165th Manchester derby, it was a match of little resonance outside the city. The real action this week is going on in Europe without any English clubs — and this match merely confirmed why.

United look tired and deflated — no one more than Wayne Rooney. Once the
star of the show, he looks little more than a bit-part player.

United, evidently, have still to come to terms with their Champions League defeat by Real Madrid — while City got up for it last night only because it was Old Trafford.

If only they could have been bothered to raise themselves when it was Ajax.

Mancini, though, will be swaggering around Manchester this week without a care in the world.

With a five-year contract worth £37million burning a hole in his back pocket, why should the Italian be concerned by anything?

And yet this match still offered him a lifeline of sorts.

Here was a man in need of a result to cover up all the mistakes he had made this season. And, boy, will he be using it.

In fact, you can hardly think of anything he had got correct. A 4-2 League Cup defeat at home to Aston Villa actually looked pretty reasonable by the time City had been eliminated from the Champions League.

That was after a showing in the group stage which made a total mockery of the
£1billion lavished on the club by Sheikh Mansour.

Their miserable tally of three points was the lowest by an English club in the history of the tournament.

As they went into last night’s match, Mancini was also attempting to avoid another low-water mark — overseeing the worst defence of a league title since
Blackburn finished 21 points behind United in 1995-96. Not that he hadn’t got excuses for all of this.

It was because his board hadn’t given him the money to sign proper footballers
in the summer, such as Robin van Persie and Eden Hazard.

Instead, he’d been forced into wasting £40m on players like Javier Garcia, Jack Rodwell, Maicon and Scott Sinclair.

Then there was all the tactical nonsense, the zonal marking and changing of formation — especially in the Champions League.

That wasn’t his fault, either. That was all down to the incompetence of the players he had been lumbered with.

This wasn’t exactly kept secret, either — which hardly added to the harmony in the camp, as he fell out with Joleon Lescott, Joe Hart, Samir Nasri and even Vincent Kompany.

And still the vainest manager in football refused to look in the mirror. Flailing in every direction, Mancini finally alighted on the REAL reason why City had struggled so much this season.

Because other teams were too frightened of United, they didn’t believe they could beat Ferguson’s mob and consequently took to the pitch behind a bloke carrying a white flag.

Now we had heard it all.

With City 15 points adrift of United before kick-off, last night’s encounter was little more than an exercise in damage-limitation. But a victory at least allowed that self-satisfied smile to once again creep across Mancini’s face.

Ferguson had fielded a team of such attacking intent — Van Persie, Danny Welbeck, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Young and Ryan Giggs — he seemed hell-bent on United reversing the 6-1 scoreline from last season before half-time.

And yet in the opening 45 minutes they managed just two chances — a shot
from Van Persie that drifted just past the far post and a toe-poke from Rafael that hit the top of the crossbar.

City, with Carlos Tevez in for Aguero because of the Old Trafford effect, had one purple patch early on but still went no closer than Nasri slicing a 12-yarder hopelessly wide of the target.

Yes, things perked up after the break but you were still left with one impression.
That Europe has caught up with English football.

That the five teams at the top of the Premier League are treading water.

And that they won’t improve until people start telling them the truth and stop patting them on the back.

Now Mancini and City head for Wembley and Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.

It should be an intriguing clash, especially in midfield where there will be a battle royal between Yaya Toure and David Silva and Eden Hazard and Oscar.

It could go either way. If it should go against City then Mancini may not be around at the start of next season.

If he’s not, he will have no one to blame but himself — despite last night’s result.

Which will come as a great surprise to the Italian.