da wazamba： Derbies are about the here and now, but reflecting on last weekend’s derby day clashes between the Manchester clubs and the Liverpool ones, it’s clear that they’ll have more long-term effects than short-term ones.
da fezbet： For the Merseyside derby, the point gained by both clubs will unlikely be too significant come the end of the season. Everton look like they’ll be safe, and won’t trouble the top six. Liverpool might rue their missed chances if they narrowly miss out on the top four, but other than that, both clubs will be looking for redemption in the cup competitions.
As far as the Manchester derby was concerned, too, City seem so far ahead that even a Manchester United victory would surely only have prolonged the vain hope of a title race. The victory probably just puts neutrals out of their misery that little bit earlier.
But there will be long-term implications to both of those games, perhaps mostly for Manchester United, but possibly for Everton, too.
It feels like this was the shape of things to come. For Everton under Sam Allardyce, they may well improve and become a more potent attacking force, but for now it’s clear that the focus is on sorting out the defence. That might well be fair enough, given that the former England manager inherited the team with the worst defensive record in the league and who looked destined for a relegation dogfight until he took over. Since then, they’ve conceded just one goal.
That might mitigate Everton’s unambitious performance at Anfield last Sunday, and after going on to beat Newcastle in midweek, Evertonians probably won’t care all that much – not unless they’re still watching boring football come the end of the season.
For Manchester United, there can be no excuse. Ideas have been floated, that United are outgunned by City’s spending power, or that Paul Pogba – who cost well over £30m more than Blues’ record-signing Kevin de Bruyne – was absent for the derby. They’re complete red herrings, of course, designed to deflect from the fact that Jose Mourinho and his team are 11 points behind their rivals. The reason that the Portuguese coach was appointed manager of Real Madrid was to topple Pep Guardiola at Barcelona. The same thing is happening in Manchester. And he’s not just behind: he’s behind in double figures.
But Mourinho is hiding another massive deal. He’s not just hiding his failure to track down City, he’s hiding the fact that his side can’t attack.
All season he’s been on the defensive about it, pointing to the goals they’ve scored and their place in the table. But in no big game this season have they been on the front foot. The first 20 minutes against Arsenal were perhaps the best in any of those big games this season, but even then they had to rely on two mistakes to put them far enough ahead to deal with the onslaught that eventually came.
The problem with their derby day performance, though, is that when you’re playing the league leaders, who are eight points ahead of you, and everyone is billing the game as pretty much your last chance to start pinning them back, you only have one option: attack.
If there was ever a game that United had to attack a team this season, surely it was this one. Surely it was the one game where it mattered that they actually won.
So far, Mourinho has seemed happy to draw the away games against the top six rivals. He’s seemed happy to play the percentages. But playing at home against the league leaders isn’t a game where you can do that. Must-win games are ‘must-win’ for a reason.
It’s set a dangerous precedent, one that will have long-term implications. For a club who base their footballing identity on the idea that they play attractive, attacking football, this isn’t good enough. Nor, surely, is it acceptable to United that their city neighbours can come to Old Trafford, outplay them, end their title hopes, and leave only after their fans have sung ‘park the bus, park the bus Man United’.
Last week’s derby day showed that the Premier League is now divided into teams who feel like they’re good enough to live on the front foot, taking the game to their opponents, and those who feel that they aren’t, and who hide behind excuses, complaints and two banks of four.
Far from being about short-term bragging rights, these derby days will live on in the memory as a day when Everton and Manchester United added a cowardice to their identity that no-one knew they had.
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