The Community Shield on Sunday 7th August 2011 will arguably be one of the most competitive ones in its history as the two Manchester clubs battle it out to gain a psychological edge before the start of the new season. There is no doubting that Manchester City are at such a level so as to challenge their neighbours in every single derby they contest.Both clubs have been relatively busy in the summer transfer window and there is little doubt that both still have some business to do. Manchester United struck early in the summer with three exciting signings to replace the outgoing trio of Gary Neville,Edwin Van Der Sar and Paul Scholes.Phil Jones arrived from Blackburn Rovers for an expensive 16.5 Million Pounds.
Jones and Smalling,both of whom impressed last season,look to be the future backbone of this United team.The next signing was England attacker Ashley Young.He had an impressive season at Villa last time round and I believe he is playing his best football and will fit in well at the club.
The final signing was of David De Gea from Atletico Madrid and at 20 he is one of the youngest Top Goalkeepers in the world.He should face stiff competition from Anders Lindergaard who arrived from Denmark in January and has been excellent every time I've seen him.
Sir Alex is still looking for a creative midfielder to fill the position left by Scholes(although no one can replace him)and the saga with Wesley Sneijder will go on and on until August 31st.
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| Two Managers...ONE AIM..Premiership. |
Speaking of transfer sagas, Carlos Tevez is still a Manchester City Player.The deal with Corinthians could not be agreed and unless a big club is willing to pay his transfer fee and wages Tevez will be still be staying in "Two Restaurant" Manchester(His words not mine).
In general it was an excellent season for Roberto Mancini at City and he will be looking to build on it this season.Gael Clichy arrived early on from Arsenal and he will compete with Alex Kolarov for the left side of defence.
Another defensive signing arrived in the form of Stefan Savic from Partizan Belgrade and although he may not feature prominently in the coming season he looks a bright prospect.
Frustrated by the lack of first team appearances Shay Given left for Aston Villa and City will need a good second keeper to back up Joe Hart.Jerome Boateng also left for Bayern Munich,Michael Johnson left for Leicester City and Jo returned to Brazil with Internacional.
City currently have one of the most interesting and controversial striking department in the world.Carlos Tevez was expected to leave and a ready-made replacement in the form of Sergio Aguero arrived from Atletico Madrid.
Along with that they have the under performing Edin Dzeko and the controversial Mario Balotelli.The Back-Heel incident against the LA Galaxy in City's pre-season tour has been well publicized and obviously it was not the done thing.
Balotelli disrespected the opponents,the fans and his own teammates.Mancini reacted swiftly in removing him and handled the situation very well.The question with city is who do they start in the first game of the season?
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| Balotelli might turn out to be an expensive failure.. |
City play a 4-3-3 formation and one of the positions should and will be filed by the brilliant David Silva.That leaves Tevez,Aguero,Balotelli,Dzeko and Adam Johnson to fight for the remaining two places(Not to forget Craig Bellamy and Roque Santa Cruz).
I think Aguero will start most of the games simply because of the amount that has been paid for him.I also believe the third triumvirate should be Adam Johnson.He creates havoc cutting in from the right hand side and can unlock defences single-handedly.
That leaves a very interesting bench for city and Mancini will have to figure a solution sooner rather than later.Coming to the match this Sunday,Do not believe for one second that this is a friendly.No derby is ever a friendly.
The last time these two clubs met in the Community Shield was way back in 1956 when a solitary goal from Dennis Viollet gave United the bragging rights.This match will be very tight and in such situations it is generally one of two things that decides it-Luck or Brilliance.
With the quality of the two sides and the quality of the Wembley pitch(It wasn't very nice early on but has improved dramatically over the past two years)it will be an occasion no football fan should miss.
I think the starting line ups for the two clubs will be:
ManchesterUnited-Lindergaard,Fabio,Ferdinand,Vidic,Evra,Nani,Carrick,Anderson,Young,Berbatov ,Rooney.
ManchesterCity-Hart,Richards,Kolo Toure,Kompany,Clichy,De Jong,Yaya Toure,Barry,Silva,Dzeko,Johnson/Milner(can't decide!).
I think that United will win this game by a close margin but anything can happen.Many don't understand the significance of the Community Shield.Of the last 9 Community Shield winners,8 of them have gone on to win the Barclays Premier League.
It is not beyond possibility that the same could happen this time around as the two Manchester Clubs battle it out for the Premiership.As far as the whole season goes it will be close between the two and if Aguero settles in quickly Sir Alex will have many Squeaky-Bum weekends!
P.S: A mention to Paul Scholes who has his testimonial tonight in front of a packed Old Trafford.He has been a great servant to Manchester United and will continue to do so.He is a role model to every single kid who wants to be a football and has shown that you can be a top-top footballer while leading a controversy-free life.LEGEND.
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