By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Oct 24, 2011) US Soccer Players -- The first English League game I ever saw was on television, extended highlights from Liverpool beating Crystal Palace 9-0 in 1989. It's a game so famous it has its own wikipedia entry, but for all I knew at the time it was business as usual in England. Courtesy of a weekly highlights show late on Sunday nights, I soon learned that high scores, much less lopsided high scores, weren't exactly common. Imagine Manchester United's surprise when it happened to them.
That's the story of the weekend - if not the season - from the Premier League. The two Manchester clubs in a 1st vs 2nd derby, and only one of them bothering to show up. 6-1 to the away side and 90 minutes later United are in crisis management mode. Well, some at United are in crisis management mode. Their actual manager was more concerned with working out what happened in the moment.
“We just kept attacking," Alex Ferguson told his club's official site. "It’s alright playing with the history books but common sense has to come in at times. With the experience we had at the back, we should have realised that and settled for what we had when it went to 4-1. At times our full-backs were almost our wingers and we were playing almost two versus three at the back. That was suicide and crazy.”
As if anybody is still in search of evidence for what makes Ferguson categorically different than the bulk of the managers and coaches operating at the highest level, here's an example. He asks the right questions of his squad and himself. He also admitted to feeling "shattered" and it's hard to find a better word for seeing everything you've planned in the run-up to a prestige game get unraveled so thoroughly.
Very rarely since Ferguson reestablished United as the English team to beat has the club had to deal with doubt. Even the loss to Barcelona in last years Champions League final at Wembley didn't lead to serious reconsideration of what exactly United were doing. They got beat by a team that had the players, tactics, and situational skill to get a result against anybody. That's explainable. Yet it was Ferguson leading the charge against the type of team Manchester City has been building.
Call it whatever you like, but Ferguson was part of the group taking swipes at City for their 'too much too soon mentality,' built off the benefactor model that so angers UEFA in the push for financial fair play. It's hard to keep talking after a 6-1 loss at Old Trafford.
It doesn't help United's version of events when City manager Roberto Mancini took the highroad. In his own post-game comments he pointed to United's Jonathan Evans getting red carded two minutes into the second-half as the game changer.
"I have even more respect now for United," Mancini said. "After the sending off they continued to play and try to score goals, and that's an incredible mentality."
But that cuts in both directions. City also kept their game up late when they could've easily bunkered, playing for the obvious result rather than doing exactly what Mancini said: continuing to play and try to score goals. Half of City's goals came from the 89th minute onward. Though some might see that as borderline insulting, hammering a team when they're already beaten, there's a more flattering read. City came to play for 90 minutes, and part of their game was going to be maintaining that throughout those 90 minutes.
As messages go, that's a substantial one to send at Old Trafford.
You might recall that last season United sent a message of their own, hammering Blackburn Rovers 7-1 at Old Trafford on November 27th. The score line in that game along with the timing were important. The early part of the 2010-11 Premier League season was highlighted by contenders getting lopsided results. Chelsea opened the season by beating West Brom at home 6-0 and then got the same result away against Wigan a week later. United answered with that Blackburn result, showing they to could punish teams with little hope of contending.
What City did is categorically different. Set aside Manchester United playing with ten men. The reason United continued to play even when it was obviously opening them up to more City goals was simple. This is a team that always writes its own story. One that wanted to tell a story about the day they went a man down and still managed not to lose their local derby. That's a United story, one that simply isn't supposed to end with them giving up six goals at home.
Mancini is right to be less than jubilant in victory. It's still early in the season. Even the significant gap between contenders and everyone else in the Premier League has a way of closing over 90 minutes. Last season, United didn't win away to Blackburn. The goal difference might have been +6 to United over their two league games, but Blackburn still came away with a point.
City are undefeated, but their one draw this season came away to Fulham. Clint Dempsey's club is just on the right side of the drop line, with their only win this season their own lopsided derby demolition of Queens Park Rangers 6-0.
Though it's doubtful Mancini really needed to look to Fulham for a lesson on how to play down a result, Fulham's Martin Jol provided one in the aftermath of that 6-0 win. He talked about a team in sync capable of forcing their game and scoring at will, but he also talked about a team in sync doing everything right but scoring goals. That's been Fulham at various points this season, playing well but failing to score. As Jol saw it, loading up goals against QPR might not have been the best idea. Play that game moving forward and spread them around a bit. You can play that up for comic effect, but he has a practical point.
Even stocked teams like City have to wonder what's happening when the game highlighted on their schedule, underlined, and highlighted again turns into a route. Are they really that good? Was it simply playing most of the second-half 10 vs 11? Did they catch United on what Ferguson quickly called "our worst day?"
Here's where the manager has a job to do, one every bit as difficult as Ferguson's. United have to rebuild their confidence but they're doing it with the excuse of that red card. City also have to deal with that same excuse, teasing out what would've happened had United stayed at 11 and with that in mind what their team might've done over those final 43 minutes at Old Trafford.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
