The first half was probably the best 45 minutes I have seen anywhere in the Premier League this season, says Gary Neville
I thought this was a very interesting article, and one that I agree with - I didn't think Sunday's game was boring at all, it was actually the best I've seen us play under LVG, I've never seen a Manchester United team so assured in possession. After having a day to reflect on the game, does anyone else agree?
Supporters from both sides of Manchester may have left Old Trafford at the end of a 0-0 draw between United and City shaking their heads at the lack of goalmouth action or excitement, but for me, it was 90 minutes which told me that Premier League clubs can look forward to challenging in the Champions League again.
The fan watching it probably thinks that it is boring, that the entertainment is poor, but I really enjoyed the game and the first-half was probably the best 45 minutes I have seen anywhere in the Premier League this season.
The Premier League is renowned for entertainment and madness, but this was a game for the professional and I genuinely believe there were a lot of very good things out on that pitch.
Both sets of centre-halves were fantastic, with Antonio Valencia and Marcos Rojo the same against Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling.
Phil Jones and Chris Smalling were very good and Nicolas Otamendi was fantastic for City at centre-half.
Before the game, I saw United’s full-backs – Valencia and Rojo – as big weaknesses against De Bruyne and Sterling, but I thought De Bruyne was completely finished in the game after 20 minutes because Rojo dealt with him brilliantly.
For every attacking player out on that pitch, it was a nightmare, but that was largely because the defensive units of both teams did exactly what is required in the Champions League.
If I was a coach of United or City, I would be proud of how the players conducted themselves and followed instructions.
At a time when the Premier League is teetering with its co-efficient and facing the prospect of losing a team in the Champions League, this game offered a level of comfort in that teams are starting to apply themselves to defeding, concentration and focus.
What is a quality football match?
If City or United had torn the other apart, with the other team defending as they did, then you would say it was a quality performance.
But when a team nullifies the other, pays attention to detail of every one of the others’ strengths, you also have to say that that is a quality football match.
I will not be told by anybody that there wasn’t a lot of quality on that pitch today. When people talk about quality, they think of a great goal or a great shot or a great dribble.
But no, a quality football match is when two teams pretty evenly matched nullify each other and pay respect to each other.
I might be the only person in the country saying this, but I don’t care.
Every time I watch a big game in the Premier League, there is no doubt there is a correlation between the madness and chaos in domestic games and then the lack of application, focus and concentration that we see in the Champions League, where we have looked like the most naïve players in the world.
Concentration is a word that was rammed down my throat, and all my United team-mates’ throats, for 20 years.
But it seems like a word that doesn’t exist in the game anymore. It’s all about expanse, risk, goals, excitement, drama, mistakes.
The drama and mistakes of the Premier League might give fans some momentary high, but in this game, I saw a quality football match.
There is a place in football for this type of game. I want to see goals and incident, but when I have seen how we have been in the Champions League over the past few years, I want to see more of what I saw between United and City because, in all honesty, I think we have looked like muppets in the Champions League for the last three years.
We have looked like schoolboys playing against men.
There is still some way to go before that changes, but this game has given me hope that the struggle and concentration will translate itself into the Champions League.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/11954061/Manchester-derby-proved-that-Premier-League-clubs-can-look-forward-to-challenging-in-Champions-League-again.html
GN: "Best 45 minutes of Football this year"
posted on 26/10/15
TBH I was mainly frustrated while also disgusted whenever I saw Jones' face.
posted on 26/10/15
"At a time when the Premier League is teetering with its co-efficient and facing the prospect of losing a team in the Champions League"
Just on this bit as I keep seeing it, we've actually moved up to second again. With Borussia looking out, there's no guarantee that Germany will overtake us. Italy, with Roma looking out as well (and being in Leverkeusens group), as well as being 10 points behind us, I really can't see it.
posted on 26/10/15
Melts
manfrombelmonty has a live thread on it that gets updated each week.
He still has the Germans ahead of us.
http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewArticle/320414
posted on 26/10/15
Germany have outscored us so far this season (despite us 3-0 up against their CL teams)
We are suffering a fair bit from West Ham and Southampton.
posted on 26/10/15
Oh, and Italy are only 4 points behind us.
This season (which is for 17/18 CL) is not really the worry for me.
It is next season (for 18/19 CL) that is the problem, as we lose a 15 point season compared to Italy losing 11pts. That would actually put them ahead of us as things stand.
posted on 26/10/15
comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 2 hours, 19 minutes ago
"At a time when the Premier League is teetering with its co-efficient and facing the prospect of losing a team in the Champions League"
Just on this bit as I keep seeing it, we've actually moved up to second again. With Borussia looking out, there's no guarantee that Germany will overtake us. Italy, with Roma looking out as well (and being in Leverkeusens group), as well as being 10 points behind us, I really can't see it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Meltn, I think you checked the season-end rankings instead of the current ones.
Season-end:
http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2015.html
Current:
http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2016.html
In fairness though, current counts for little, less so at this point with so many points yet to play for.
Here's a link to coefficient scores by country, so you can see how much each club is contributing and the country ranking in order for this season alone.
http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/ccoef2016.html
It's quite telling that Norway are 4th and Liechtenstein 9th at this point in the season. They should be nowhere near come the end of the season.
posted on 26/10/15
And yes, I agree that the first half of yesterday's game was an interesting contest. There was a lot of negativity on DJ's live thread and I asked why people were only picking out the negatives.
I did find the football a lot less purposeful and the match a lot less interesting in the 2nd half, up until the last 10 or so minutes when I imagine fatigue meant there were more openings to exploit.
posted on 26/10/15
Yep I was IOAG, apologies all.
posted on 26/10/15
comment by Busby (U19985)
The last 20 minutes were a let down, but up until that I felt it was a good 0-0.
..............
that was the most exciting part of the game.
posted on 27/10/15
comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 1 day, 2 hours ago
VC
Yeah I don't think it was bad, it was compelling if anything. We saw the strengths of an LVG side, organised and defensive which is ok at times but it did leave me frustrated and wanting more risks and attacking flair. But that has always been one of my biggest concerns with LVG.
________________
I no longer think this is down to LVG. The manager himself has complained that the players are passing too slowly and that they are passing sideways and backwards too often. He also told the players that they should shoot more from outside the box.
That does not sound to me like LVG is instructing the players to be boring and not take risks!
My biggest gripe about our style, whoever is to blame, is that not enough players burst forward when we attack and we usually have too few options in the box. There were times when a player would break forward and the only other red shirt in an attacking position was Rooney - and he had four blue shirts around him so the move broke down.
In the past we used to break in numbers - we would have a striker, a number ten, the winger on the opposite flank and even a CM all busting a gut to support the attack.
Nowadays the opposition has had time to regroup and reorganise by the time we get enough players forward to create anything.
I agree with Neville that both defences were solid but they were not really tested because neither side committed that many players forward at any given time. This had the dual effect of 1) causing attacking moves to fizzle out and 2) preventing either side from launching a counter-attack.
If you rely on a lone striker to create (or capitalise on a mistake) then that had to be Martial imo. In this sort of match he is wasted out wide.