Louis van Gaal was adamant. When asked if Manchester United can still be classed as a bigger club than their cross-town rivals, the Dutchman smiled and replied simply in two words: “Of course.”
He evidently considered the question ridiculous. For United’s supporters this was precisely what they wanted to hear from their manager ahead of the Manchester derby. This time last season, David Moyes had infuriated many a Red with his suggestion that City were a club to which United aspired. Now here was Van Gaal echoing what Sir Alex Ferguson had said immediately after City had won the title in 2012, when he insisted it would take a century for them to catch up. Fighting talk, not surrender: this is what fans rally behind.
And how United followers need such a public reminder of their status locally. The evidence is everywhere of the speed with which City have closed the gap on their once invincible rivals since their takeover by the Abu Dhabi royal family. It is there physically around the stadium, where the magnificent new Etihad Campus has utterly transformed a whole quarter of the city, world class facilities blooming out of the industrial dereliction. It is there in the fan club banners from Indonesia City Supporters, Dallas Blue Moon and Redondo Beach Blues wrapped around one of the towers at the Etihad, demonstrating City’s gathering prominence in the world game.
More pertinently it is there in the current statistics. On the pitch, City’s recent record is hugely superior to United’s. Champions twice and runners-up once, in the past three seasons they have accumulated four trophies to United’s one. In the derby, they have won five of the six most recent meetings. In two of the last three seasons, they have registered 7-1 aggregate victories against their local rivals. Not since a Robin van Persie inspired last-minute scramble in November 2012 have United won a league derby. If the past belongs to “20 times” United, today is very much bathed in sky blue, a point made by Pablo Zabaleta and Manuel Pellegrini last week.
And it is not just those directly involved in City who have been making such claims. Andrew Cole – who played for both clubs in derbies and never lost – reckons the balance of power has undoubtedly shifted bluewards. “Yeah, of course it has,” he said. “In my time at United, we used to go there and say to ourselves: ‘It’s six points a season’. City were a bit of a yo-yo team. Obviously they’d put up a great battle against you but United’s quality used to come through and we would end up winning the majority of the derbies. Now it’s all changed. Manchester City are a very good team now.” And Cole, incidentally, is employed as a United club ambassador.
What the undoubted tilt in the local dynamics has done is subtly alter the approach to the derby taken by the two sets of supporters. Once for City followers, this was the one game that mattered. Win against the rags and all the vicissitudes created by poor leadership and uninspired direction in their club could be forgotten. Rare victories would be greeted with unfettered ecstasy. For United fans, on the other hand, the derby was simply an opportunity to enjoy a comfortable three points, to mock their rivals’ inadequacy, to roll out their chants about the time distance since any trophy had blue ribbons attached to it. The challenge that mattered more – culturally as well as competitively – was that presented by Liverpool.
This season there is a sense that mindsets have changed. For the City follower, the prospect of beating United, while delicious, is not the be-all and end-all. As Pellegrini continued to insist all week, it is three points towards a championship challenge; chasing Chelsea’s coat-tails has become the more pertinent objective. For United supporters, it now means far more. Unable to sing about City’s trophy-gathering inadequacy, they recognise that a win would serve as a timely reminder of the past. However fleeting, regaining local superiority is a much more tangible prospect than winning the league.
Victory this time, too, would bring a legitimate indication of progression of a side still suffering from the inconsistency of transition. A win against City – which would be only United’s fourth of a stuttering season – would matter because it would demonstrate proper development. City, in short, are now a club against which United are measured.
This grudging compliment to City’s gathering prominence has been in evidence on United fan sites, on social media, on the streets of Manchester. Van Gaal said he was more than aware of the gathering buzz, of the pressing need to satisfy his team’s followers. “I don’t live in The Lowry [hotel] anymore. Then, I was on the streets at night when I went to restaurants. Now I’m in a quiet village so I don’t hear that. But I would have heard it in Manchester this week much more than before,” he said.
It is a sense of the derby that is being reflected in the United dressing room. Among the babble of foreign voices, the meaning of the game is inevitably diluted. Things are not as they were when Mick Doyle for City and Gary Neville for United attacked the game with the passion of lifelong fans. Of those likely to be in the two squads this afternoon, the only Mancunian is United’s Tyler Blackett. And the chances of him playing are minimal.
Yet, this past week the Madrid-born David de Gea tweeted a picture of United fans filling Manchester’s Albert Square with the caption “the city is red.” And his La Plata-reared team-mate Marcos Rojo, when asked whether he had joined the right club in signing for United, sneered at the very idea he might have chosen wrongly.
“Yes. Of course, Manchester United are the important club in England and in the whole world,” the Argentine said.
Van Gaal, who admitted his previous experience of cross-town derbies was limited to games against Espanyol with Barcelona, revealed that this sense of relative history had come from his assistant. Ryan Giggs, a Manc to his bootstraps whatever his international affiliation, gave a presentation to the squad this week which, while explaining the meaning of the derby and its importance to the fans, also made some pertinent points about City’s current form. He suggested that Pellegrini’s side are at their most dangerous when apparently in the midst of a wobble. After all, they were going through a similar barren run to the one they are suffering from right now last season when they met United at the Etihad and won 4-1 en route to securing the title.
“Ryan has explained that in analysis to the players, also that it can be better to play now against Manchester City,” said Van Gaal. “But at the other side, they shall be more motivated to play against United as they are also looking for a good result like we are. It is also a dangerous time.”
Once United approached the derby with little trepidation. Now, there is their manager publicly pointing up the game’s danger. And as apprehension has grown exponentially, so has the meaning of victory. This season, more than before in a generation, for the red quarters of Manchester, it matters. A win at the Etihad this afternoon would be greeted with a delirium rarely before witnessed among United fans.
“He’s City, we’re United. And that’s it,” said Rojo about his compatriot Sergio Agüero. “You put all that behind you, you go out there for the team. Winning is everything.”
That is what they want to hear.
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