Manchester City v Manchester United: Dimitar Berbatov fails to rise to the task
There was no Wayne Rooney and no Carlos Tévez but there was a raw, gripping contest in which, emphatically, Manchester United missed their main striker more.
Sitter: Dimitar Berbatov buries his face after missing a golden opportunity to put United in front Photo: Action Images
By Jason Burt 10:20PM BST 16 Apr 2011
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The way things have gone of late at United suggest their title hopes lie with Javier Hernández, not Rooney, yet the young Mexican was placed on the bench as Sir Alex Ferguson put his trust in Dimitar Berbatov.
It didn’t work, though it maybe should have done. After all, Berbatov is the Premier League's top-scorer, with 21 goals, two ahead of Tévez. Yet he wasted two gilt-edged chances and contributed little. If Berbatov endured a difficult evening, however, United's defeat was also a collective failing.
Paul Scholes, playing almost certainly his last Manchester derby, and still crazy even in his 37th year, will have to look long and hard at his behaviour after an utterly avoidable dismissal at a vital time.
His partner in central midfield, Michael Carrick, played the kind of flaky pass that has undermined his career and handed Manchester City the winning goal. That came just as Carrick seemed have recovered his confidence in recent weeks.
Patrice Evra had a torrid game, John O’Shea contributed little, Nani and Antonio Valencia failed to penetrate. It was that kind of contest for the champions-elect, the Champions League semi-finalists and formerly the Treble-chasers.
It wasn’t a capitulation but by the end City, who had started so weakly, were worthy winners and probably should have won by a more convincing score.
How delicious this victory is for them. It doesn’t win a trophy but it takes the honours. Manager Roberto Mancini had talked grandly of changing history and, as impossible as that is, everyone knew what he meant. He had talked the talk and last night his players delivered, albeit aided by their opponents.
Maybe the exertions have caught up on United. Maybe Rooney, who sat on the bench, shifting his weight nervously, with the players who had missed the cut for the match-day squad, was missed too much as he served the second game of his two-match ban for swearing into a television camera.
He has become the play-maker, the orchestrator with Hernández working wonderfully with him. It is, right now, an irreplaceable pairing in the big matches. The absence of Ryan Giggs was also, perhaps, underestimated.
Maybe Berbatov was suffering from ring rust. He certainly gives that impression at the best of times and his biggest crime yesterday wasn’t the misses, his sluggish play nor, amazingly for him, the lack of surety in his first touch. The offence was how he allowed his head to drop after those misses and how he therefore let his team down.
His contribution revolved around the events of the 15th minute. Twice Berbatov should have provided United with an early advantage. First, they capitalised, wonderfully, with quick one-touch football, after Gareth Barry’s terrible back pass, to carve the striker free only for Joe Hart to save superbly. The slick inter-play between Carrick, Scholes and Ji-sung Park was exceptional. Then Nani turned sharply to cross low and Berbatov stole in front of Aleksandar Kolarov, only to steer his shot over from about four yards.
Had he scored with either chance, the sense was that City, struggling to gain a foothold in the tie, would have been overwhelmed and condemned to a defeat that would have reverberated throughout the club, undermining Mancini and their ambitions.
But the misses hurt Berbatov, who was also feeling sore when he reached a header but his nose crashed into Pablo Zabaleta’s skull. The United striker had cotton buds stuffed up his nose, even though there didn’t appear blood to stem, and seemed to lose a little heart. He was distracted. Maybe, with a lack of support, he was also let down by those around him. His lack of pace was evident as he ran on to Nani’s first-time pass, only to be easily held off by the excellent Vincent Kompany while soon after he was played out wide, only to screw his cross behind the goal. Then, Berbatov brought the ball down with a typically precise first touch only for the ball to bounce off his knee and out of play.
Ferguson’s response to Yaya Touré’s goal, appallingly set up by Carrick with a lazy pass aimed for Scholes, was to send out his substitutes to warm up, with Anderson and Michael Owen joining Hernández.
Soon the Mexican was on but after Hart brilliantly pushed Nani’s free kick on to the crossbar, United were hamstrung by Scholes’ red card for a studs-up challenge planted into Zabaleta’s right thigh. Retribution for an earlier lunge by the City defender, it was utterly stupid and also led to Berbatov’s substitution.
Predictably, Hernández was making a difference and Ferguson would not have been the only one in the stadium thinking that this striker would have taken at least one of those two chances presented to Berbatov.
Hernández wriggled free down the right. His shot was blocked but, down to 10 men, United were struggling to gain the kind of momentum they needed to force back a team as organised and physically imposing as City.
United were spent. They failed to threaten and that will have hurt Ferguson the most. Last night belonged to his noisy neighbours.
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