MAN CITY VS MAN UTD
Saturday 3rd June, 3pm
Man City @ 10/21
Draw @ 18/5
Man Utd @ 5/1
view odds
In 1995, just prior to the release of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, life-long Manchester City fan and Oasis fulcrum, Noel Gallagher, wrote a song called The Masterplan. He was riding the crest of a creative wave at the time, and it remains one of the best songs he has ever written.
But the fact that the song was initially ‘given away’ as a B-side – and not, for example, saved to be a key track on the next album – was a sign that slightly more care was being put into the compositions than managerial decision-making. And it revealed, somewhat ironically, that Noel Gallagher’s personal ‘masterplan’ – of Oasis becoming the biggest band in the world – would most likely fail to come to fruition.
Further poor choices and bitter squabbles, interspersed with moments of quality, would characterise the rest of the band’s lifespan before it ground to an abrupt halt in 2009. The absence of a cool head – a meticulous planner, a control-freak; a Bono or a Mick Jagger-type character – ultimately cost them.
The Manchester City masterplan, however – which is also one of global domination – appears to be going rather well. Thus far, anyway. Five of the last six Premier League titles have been guzzled down like oysters. Numerous other trinkets – EFL Cups, Charity Shields – like splashes of a spicy mignonette sauce, have been added to the feast. There is clearly a lot of thought being put into the decision-making side of things over at The Etihad…oh yes, and an awful lot of money.
And in Pep Guardiola they have their touchline control-freak. A man who never stops thinking about tactics and decisions, and their consequences. In fact, one of the few criticisms that can be levelled at him is that he has a tendency to go too far; overthinks things – begins to play a game of chess whose rules go well beyond the fringes of mortal, human comprehension.
But since the arrival of Erling Haaland this tendency has been neutered somewhat. The endless theses on the intricacies of the ‘false 9’ – the sheaves of ink-bespattered blue-prints; the volumes of intense, pencil, chiaroscuro pitch diagrams – rendered redundant. They now have a #9, and he is far from false. Just put him on the pitch and create chances for him. End of thesis.
A more bombastic Erik ten Hag could have chosen to be unveiled at Old Trafford to the sound of another Manchester-born rock ‘n’ roll anthem: I Am The Resurrection by The Stone Roses. Because it was his job to try and resurrect the club; to restore greatness to the red half of the city.
It seemed a thankless, almost impossible task. But the daunting in-tray – stacked as high as the Deansgate Square South Tower on arrival – has been whittled down impressively. Ronaldo’s colossal ego was punctured and packed-away, a trophy has been won, Champions League football has been re-established, and many players greatly improved.
United will arrive at Wembley in the unfamiliar position of having less to lose than their opponents. Also unusual for the Red Devils is the fact that there is a greater prize on offer than the actual silverware.
Another FA Cup trophy, while a welcome addition to any footballing mantelpiece, will not be definitive – they have won it 12 times already. Preventing Manchester City from completing a likely treble, however – in the process preserving the magnitude of their own 1999 treble achievement – is something that would cause the United faithful to, well, party like it’s 1999.
Injury to sporadic striker Anthony Martial could lead to a starting role for 18-year old Argentinian winger Alejandro Garnacho. Is the livewire talent ready to announce himself as part of United’s masterplan for Saturday afternoon? And become an integral feature of next season’s masterplan too?
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