Manchester United 1-2 Manchester City

What a flat end to the season it now looks like we have in store. I thought we'd see whether the last couple of games were just a sign of legginess after the internationals or a sign that our squad had run out of steam. Well we got out answer last night, nobody really rose to the occasion, Jones excepted, but at centre half he wasn't able to get us going further up the field.
The grumbles at the ground were that we were second best and that our midfield had been shown up again. I didn't think they were that much better, if they were better at all. The winner, a great goal admittedly, came out of nowhere, they had looked as unlikely to poach a winner as us, i thought. Both teams may have been looking for a second goal as the game wore on, but neither really looked like getting one until Aguerro's run and strike.
Tactically the game followed the normal pattern of recent seasons, we let them outnumber us in midfield and tried to hurt them out wide and on the break. The problem for me, yet again, is that we haven't the wide men in form to make this work. Welbeck did alright, but he's not a natural wide man, and he's not going to beat his man and get to the by line. Which puts the onus on the other flank, and if there's one thing Young doesn't do, it's take his man on and get to the byline. In fact his first instinct all over the pitch, seems to be, to go back, before he goes forward.
I thought Van Persie had another lacklustre game, but, i suppose, to be fair to him, he didn't get much service. Rooney tried hard, but was unable to influence the game as much as he would have liked. Carrick was decent, but Giggs picked a bad night to have his worst game for ages. The problem there though, was who could you bring on in his place, who would have made a difference. Cleverley's form seems to have hit a brick wall, and you can forget Anderson, it seems Fergie definitely has, at last. The same could be said, for the flanks, he eventually brought Valencia on, who proceeded to remind us what a terrible lack of confidence he currently has in his own game.
Once again as in recent weeks, i didn't really understand the substitutions, the players to come off had to be first Young and then maybe Giggs. But he took Welbeck off, who at least had been trying to take the fight to them, to bring Valencia on. Young only went off after taking a knock in the last minute.
Both of their goals were on the soft side defensively, from our point of view , Giggs back heel summed his night up, and Aguerro was allowed to run with the ball before his brilliant finish.
One of the myths about United under Ferguson is that we always come strong during the second half of the season. There have been plenty of occasions where we have either fallen badly away, or limped over the line. What we do usually do, is put a good run together, a couple of months either side of Christmas, and it's that, that will have been the key to our twentieth title success when we lift the trophy in May.
As far as the rest of the season goes, I don't give a shit about points records, I'd like to see Nick Powell get a few run outs and if there are any other youngsters the coaching staff think have a chance, give them a try out over the last month or so.

Jones the "animal"

With the build up to Monday's night's derby well and truly on, Fergie waxes lyrical about Phil Jones describing him as a football animal who can play anywhere, even centre forward. Getting real, he sees him long term, as a centre back.
Going off what we have seen over his first two seasons, he has proven that he could be a top class right back, he could definitely do a decent job in midfield, long term if it came to it, but if he is to make the centre half position, his own, long term, he could probably do with playing in that position a bit more.
He and United in fact, could do without the injuries though, after not much action during the first part of the season, he has come back and given some excellent performances, usually in central midfield, and usually in between injuries. Hopefully as he matures, the injuries will decrease, if that happens, United really will have a player on their hands.

So the derby, when the fixtures were announced last summer, this seemed like, the, game to look forward to. But with us fifteen points clear, our recent exit, out of two competitions we thought we had a good chance in and either a drop in form or a temporary legginess, it's lost most of that "big game" feel. No doubt by Monday afternoon I'll be up for it, heart pumping, ready for a pint and up for the game. But that Chelsea defeat didn't half hurt, the derby i was really looking forward to, was going to be the one at Wembley, that was really going to matter. That's being a complete spoilt arse, i know but they're you go.
No doubt a victory will put that right, i don't really care about the score, i just want to see us put in a performance. As much as was gutted about Monday's scoreline and the flatness of the performance, i think the doomlords have gone way over the top, as if our fifteen point lead over City is some kind of fluke. Hopefully a couple of day off, and a decent gap between games will see us revert to the kind of performance's we gave in the champions league against Madrid.




Music

Bobby Womack - The bravest man in the universe: A new album with the collaboration of Damon Albarn, this is a bit of a corker. At times beat driven, it's a superior piece of contemporary soul.

Chromatics - Kill for love: A pretty good slice of indie electro/pop, not what you would usually associate with Seattle, it owes more to New Order and and the 80's than grunge. Mind you there's a wide spectrum of good stuff coming from Washington state nowadays.

David Bowie - The next day: Some of the reviews for this surprise realease from one of the giants of Rock music went a tad over the top, but it is fucking excellent. There may be no tracks to rank alongside his seventies classics, but there are still some blinders on it. Great musicianship too.

Frank Ocean - Channel Orange: I wouldn't usually listen to this kind of stuff, but it got some great reviews, so i gave it a go. It's pretty good, some great tracks are on there.

Gaz Coombes - Here comes the bombs: The ex Supergrass mans first solo album will satisfy any of us that admired his first group. Without being exactly more of the same, it ticks the same kind of boxes as the latter Supergrass sound.

Memory Tapes - Grace/Confusion: Found out about this just through surfing the net, it was a decent find. Indie/pop that goes prog/rockish at times, it takes a few listens, but it's worth the rewards.

Thee oh sees - Putrifiers 11: More Californian garage/psychedelic rock that hits just the right spot and they seem to be almost as prolific as Ty Segall. Not as full on guitar blast as him, but with a wider palate of influences, i can't wait to hear their next album.

Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United

I can't say anything other than i was gutted by yesterday, i was pretty confident, helped by their defeat on Saturday at Southampton, if not our lacklustre display at Sunderland. But once the game passed the half hour mark, that confidence slowly evaporated. It's amazing, alarming even, how our form has completely slumped since the champions league elimation. Regardless of yesterday being the second game in three days, we've lacked any kind of cutting edge or ability to up a gear in all our games since Real Madrid did for us. I can only look at it and wonder what would have happened if we had got through, playing Barca in our current form, doesn't bare thinking about.
As usual most will point the finger at our midfield, but whilst it's true far too much reliance is being put on Carrick at the moment, to me the problems are out wide. We seem to have wandered back to that early part of the season where we have absolutely no threat coming down either left or right. I didn't understand Fergie's decision to play Cleverley on the left, when Giggs was on the bench and hadn't played for a couple of weeks and would seemingly have been fresh. The only explanation for his omission van be, Fergie has him in his plans for next Monday. If that's so, that is disappointing, because we missed him badly yesterday, neither Cleverley or Nani contributed much yesterady. For me the chance to avenge that semi final defeat of a couple of years ago was the last big challenge of the season, with the league virtually done and dusted.
I suppose Cleverley has more of an excuse than Nani, for his ineffective display, playing out of position on the left, though his game has deteriorated the longer the season has gone on. Maybe he is feeling his first full season at the top level, one thing seems to be sure, he needs to work on his endurance levels and a summer on the weights, maybe an idea. As to Nani, where do you start, right from his first few touches of the match, you could guess it was going to be one of those days from him. He can be top class, as against Real, and yet he can be so bad, as he was yesterday, that it's almost like playing with ten men. It's looked like he was on his way in the summer, anyway, but after that, i can't see United having second thoughts and trying to hang onto him.
I actually don't think central midfield was too bad yesterday, we controlled the game for most of the first half. It was only when Carrick's energy levels understandably dropped in the second half, along with the returning Jones legs fading going that Chelsea got into the game. The lack of input into the game from the flanks put all the onus on our central players. Even then Chelsea didn't control the game at any stage.
But they got the all important goal, and once that went in you were just hoping for a response from United, and sadly, that never really came. Saying that, we still managed to create three great chances, Hernandez's header that produced a fantastic save from Cech, and Van Persie's chances when he came on. I'm still not sure how he missed that side footer. When that went over the bar, i knew that it wasn't going to be our day. The header he missed and header he put over the bar just compounded the feeling.
I don't really think Fergie got his substitutions right at all either, the first substitution had to be bring Giggs on, for whoever, we needed that bit of class further up the field from Carrick. Van Perise was a no brainer, even if he didn't come off on the day, but after that i would have brought on Kagawa before Young. For his ability to keep the ball, when we needed to build up some pressure during those last ten minutes and his ability to score a goal. Young didn't really affect the game at all, of course maybe it wasn't to be anyway, but i don't think our changes helped. 
It wasn't total doom, i thought Welbeck was superb in the first half, trouble was he was almost playing Chelsea on his own up front. He faded out to an extent, in the second half, but once they got the goal, they defended in numbers. Jones gave another excellent performance in the middle of the park, it really would be like buying a new player if we could get an injury free season from him next season, fingers crossed. Carrick was the pick of either midfield for the first 45 minutes, but the fact he had to play the ninety minutes at Sunderland told as the game went on. The defence didn't really do much wrong, it took a great goal to breach our defence and break the deadlock. We opened up their backline, but didn't put the ball in the net.
So that's that, no treble, no double, just a twentieth league title, how spolied we are, i would gladly have took that as the season got under way at Goodison in August. But the season had once promised so much more, the feeling must be, that whilst our squad is strong, it's not quite strong enough. The comings and goings this summer will be vital if we are to turn that one title into a more next season, or more so to me, whether we can get back to a champions league final. I'll leave those changes to another day.