SCOURAGE LEADS TO SUCCESS
Amad Diallo has confirmed his star status – this is the first conclusion when the Manchester derby with very low professional quality ended. The 22-year-old wing striker from Ivory Coast won a penalty to help Bruno Fernandes equalize 1-1 for MU in the 88th minute, then scored the decisive goal for MU to win 2-1 in the 90th minute.
Striker Erling Haaland (Right) of Man.City was locked by MU’s defense
Before that, Amad was always aggressive, played very determinedly, regularly meeting all of Ruben Amorim’s high demands, since this coach took over MU. At the opposite extreme are big names Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho. It would not be surprising if these two players were absent from the main squad. But it must be emphasized: Amorim took a bit of a risk by completely excluding them from the list. This is a successful decision, not only leading to an important victory for MU but also strengthening Amorim’s reputation in the upcoming journey.
Good coaches need courage to make big decisions? Results of heroic argument. People did not praise Amorim like that before the 88th minute. At that time, Amorim was only facing 3 consecutive losses in the national championship – the first time in his coaching career! In consecutive matches, Amorim’s MU always found a way to win in the end, even though they played very mediocrely. This is a matter of trust, which seemed to be completely lost at MU before Amorim appeared. This match is the same. It wasn’t until the 62nd minute that MU had its first shot in the right direction of goal.
MAN.CITY IS GOING DOWN
If MU did not shoot an accurate shot in more than 1 hour of play, then at the opposite end of the field, Man.City also did not have a shot in the right direction during the second half. Josko Gvardiol’s opening goal for Man. City seemed lucky, when Kevin de Bruyne’s cross bounced off the opponent’s feet and then changed direction, the ball flying towards Gvardiol. And then, like recent matches, the laxity of Man.City’s defense cost them dearly. This time it was full-back Matheus Nunes, whose careless pass “helped” Amad win the ball, forcing Nunes to panic and rush back to commit a foul in the penalty area.
We can sympathize with the objective situation that Guardiola is enduring: the “storm” of injuries has left him almost exhausted of defenders. But the subjective reason is that Man.City has completely weakened when a series of pillars such as Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Guendogan, Kyle Walker, and Bernardo Silva have now completely lost their form because of the burden of age. They lose strength very quickly, and when they are not exhausted, they are already fading. Above, Erling Haaland is almost a zero. If he doesn’t score goals, he is truly a “redundant person”, barely participating in anything in team play.
Is Guardiola afraid of being fired? Probably not. Now he is most afraid of… statistics. There has never been a defending champion who led until the 88th minute but lost in the Premier League, like this loss of Man.City. This was City’s 8th loss in the last 11 matches, including all tournaments – more than their total number of losses in… 106 previous matches.
