Carling Cup Preview: Manchester United v. Derby

By: Taylor Rockwell | January 20th, 2009

League Cup Semi Final – Home Leg (Old Trafford)
Aggregate: 1-0 Derby
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
KO : 20:00 BST (3:00 EST)

Points to Ponder
Rio Ferdinand may be 1) dead or 2) suffering from hypothermia. Our defensive stalwart remains sidelined with injury and, after taking in his brother’s performance at a frozen Stadium of Light, may indeed have frozen to death. And that, dear readers, is a terrible thing to consider as in a Rio Ferdinandless world, who is left to merk the England’s “greatest” players? SIDENOTE: Is YA GOT MERKED the dumbest catch phrase of all time? I’m voting yes.

Sir Alex Ferguson doesn’t appear to be taking this one for granted, stating in his pre-match news column, “This is no ‘gimme’. Derby County might well be a division below us, a team who, on paper, we should simply brush aside. But as we all know, football doesn’t work like that, especially when they have just appointed a new manager in Nigel Clough. We will have to reach a level, and a good one, if we are to pull back the one-goal deficit from the first leg and reach the final of the Carling Cup.” That said…

In an interview with the BBC, Fergie stated, “All the young players will play. I won’t risk the league campaign for the League Cup, and I think the young players will do well (on Tuesday). In an exciting atmosphere like that you find out a lot about your young players, Danny Welbeck, Darron Gibson, Rafael, the young boy Zoran Tosic, are going to be involved.” If you examine the squad list for the Derby match, you see that Fergie is sticking to his guns, as among those named include Amos, Chester, Fabio, Tosic, and Macheda. Hopefully some (Tosic and Fabio, I’m looking in your directions) of these boys will put in solid performances tonight.

Given our crap performance against Derby in the first leg, United obviously need to go to goal early and often in this fixture. There is no doubt in my mind that Derby will be parking the team bus in the general vicinity of the away goal, so the run of play should favor United. However, I wonder what form of attack we will take. If Fergie continues to employ the tried and untrue method of lobbing balls into the box for no one to get a head on, I will turn the game off immediately… if only someone hadn’t sold OUR FOURTEEN FOOT TALL STRIKER TO HULL, we might be able to win a header in the box. Sigh… such is life… therefore, a direct attack through the center seems the obvious solution, but which midfield pairing is best equipped to handle that pressure? Carrick and Scholes? Carrick and Anderson? Fletcher and Scholes? Gibson and Possebon? Who knows for certain? Well… I suppose Fergie does…

How much does United care about the League Cup? I read as many articles as I could find about tonight’s match, and I know what’s said in the papers, but I still wonder how much Fergie really values the Carling Cup. My gut says not a lot, but I hope that’s not the case, as I’ve now spent approximately 90 minutes researching the roster for tonight (which shows you about how much I want to win it). With the opportunity for an unlikely quadruple still on, United need to show what sets them apart from every other team on earth and come out guns blazing against the Rams.

Squad List: Failbot, Foster, Amos, Rafael, Neville, Vidic, Evans, Chester, O’Shea, Fabio, Slave, Nani, Carrick, Scholes, Fletcher, Gibson, Possebon, Anderson, Giggs, Park, Tosic, Tevez, Welbeck, Macheda.

Projected Starting XI: Failbot, Rafael, Vidic, Evans, O’Shea, Nani, Gibson, Carrick, Park, Tevez, Welbeck (subs: Amos, Neville, Fabio, Slave, Giggs, Possebon, Anderson, Scholes, Tosic, Macheda)

Taylor’s Preferred Starting XI: Failbot, Rafael, Vidic, Evans, Fabio, Giggs, Anderson, Possebon, Slave, Tevez, Welbeck (with Tosic, Scholes, and Nani to figure as subs).

Prediction: 3-1 United. After Derby scores against the run of play, Park will somehow find the back of the net, Evans/Vidic will knock one in off of a corner, and then Anderson (since I have to pick him to score in every game until he actually does so) will provide a third… CAUSE WE’RE THE FAMOUS MAN UNITED AND WE’RE GOING TO WEMBLEY!!!