Maybe, then, it is in all of our best interests if Manchester United win the league – because then, the team that is winning the top flight of English football and supposedly the best league in the world, is the one that has the highest concentration of English produced footballers and surely that is only good for English football itself. On the other hand, Norwich, Fulham, QPR, WBA, Bolton, Wigan and as aforementioned Man. City didn’t have a single club-trained player on the pitch over the weekend.
It may just be that, even if Manchester United do not have the best XI in the league, The Red Devils win things continuously because they simply “know how to win.” The bunch coming through was bred on the back of success and thus, naturally, it is in their veins and at United it happens again and again and again. So, for City fans it will be reassuring to know that their extensive plans for a 100 million-pound footballing academy and training complex in the east of the city that will be built on an 80-acre brownfield site next to the Etihad Stadium and is to be named the Etihad Campus are starting to be put into practice.
If Manchester United’s relentless march towards the Premier League isn’t enough to grate City fans, then the fact that 37-year old Paul Scholes is proving Patrick Vieira’s lambasting comments of calling him out of retirement “desperate” with every pass he makes, is. Over the weekend, Scholes was not only the best distributor of the ball in the Premier League, but he was the best player in the Premier League on the whole and in the top five across the whole of Europe, along with A,Pirlo, J.Farfan, B.Traore and E.Benat.
In the first half of United’s 2-0 win over QPR, Michael Carrick attempted 81 passes with 88% accuracy and only 27% were forward with 67% square. Comparably, Scholes attempted 76 passes with 93% accuracy. Only 18% were forward. By the end of the game, Scholes had a pass accuracy of 95% with a final third pass accuracy of 92%, which made up 33% of all of United’s goal-scoring opportunities.Scholes made 120 passes, 114 of which were accurate, and was responsible for 16% of United’s passes.
Over Easter, nothing’s really changed much in the past fifteen years: Manchester United look like they can win the league, Sir Alex Ferguson is doing as little as flinching and being accused of mind-games and Paul Scholes is the metronome at the heart of it all. Pass, pass, pass, pass, Passover.
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/ For more articles visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
Introducing the neat little app that’ll pay you to view content tailored to your interests:
ThisisFutbol.com are seeking new writers to join the team! If you’re passionate about football, drop us a line at “thisisfutbol.com@snack-media.com” to learn more.
Rag toser
You are a real idiot for bringing Jesus into this. There are simply no comparisons between Jesus and Balotelli…..Think before you write things……
Of course, thank you.
Gusto, have you has a sense of humour bi-pass??
Try reading the article in the context it is written….very clearly tongue in cheek. You have taken it far too seriously.
Did you ever watch Monty Python’s “LIFE OF BRIAN”?…it is possible to bring humour into ALL topics!
Football is not the place i would expect to see biblical references……however you pulled it off very well…certainly had me chuckling.
And what can i say about Man City and the way they have imploded and lost the title to their greatest rivals (not to mention one of the poorer Man Utd sides of recent years)