Manchester City 1-1 Manchester United (B Silva | Garnacho 82’) – Man City win 7-6 on penalties
WEMBLEY – How reassuring it is, on one of the football calendar’s more nihilistic days, to see how little has really changed.
“At Wembley, it always means more” bellows an announcement outside the ground, and yet nobody, least of all the players, seems under much pretence that the Community Shield matters, nor is it to be taken too seriously as an indicator of the title race that is to come.
The consolation was that there was no extra time, Manuel Akanji converting the decisive spot-kick after Jonny Evans had blazed over the bar. Jadon Sancho and Bernardo Silva had been guilty of missing one apiece of the five.
Crucially, the main theme which remains is that nothing – City’s quest for five in a row, Pep Guardiola’s future, pressing questions about what the very future of the English top flight might look like – can be definitively resolved until November. That is when the 115 City financial charges that loom over another year will be heard.
Indeed before the red end of Wembley had even had a chance to serenade their own players, a chorus of “you cheating bastards” had broken out. Granted, there had been little to sing about before that, though United ultimately acquitted themselves respectably against the City machine.
One thing is clear: Erik ten Hag’s hands will still be tied going into the new season, the first full campaign under Ineos ownership. That explained the relief when Alejandro Garnacho picked the ball up out wide from Bruno Fernandes and racing into the centre, he sliced it underneath Ederson for the opener.
It was a perfect answer to one of Ten Hag’s biggest conundrums, and considering their long-standing woes in front of goal, here was the familiar ogre rearing its head – until it was thumped whack-a-mole style out of consciousness by a 20-year-old Argentine.
The thing about whack-a-mole, of course, is that regardless of how emphatic the thump, other issues are still able to flourish. Ten Hag is more generally short of firepower, just like last term when his side registered the joint fewest goals of any top-half club.
The lead, although deserved, did not last long. Despite fielding a youthful team featuring Nico O’Reilly, Oscar Bobb and James McAtee, Manchester City wrestled their way back thanks to Bernardo Silva’s 89th-minute header, which came at the expense of a floundering Facundo Pellestri.
Even if Manchester United largely had the better chances, and managed their deep block effectively, they were reliant once again on individual brilliance. Rasmus Hojlund is injured, and there has been a failed experiment utilising Sancho as a centre-forward.
That Sancho did not come on until the 83rd minute was another nod to the fact that his rehabilitation period has not been convincing, and his relationship with Ten Hag remains fraught, and the missed spot-kick will not have helped.
The alternative was to use Mount and Fernandes interchangeably in the false nine role, which relies on the innovation of the runners around them. There were glimpses when it worked, Amad Diallo wriggling through but Mount too slow to the cross. Fernandes was the scorer of one of the great goals that never was, a lob chalked off because he had ill-timed his run.
Rashford keeled half over after pinging one against the outside of the woodwork. Another shot blazed wide, in front of the watching nonplussed England interim boss Lee Carsley. Rashford may have entered the pitch with arms aloft in prayer but his absence from Euro 2024 doesn’t appear to have reinvigorated him.
All the encouragement from coach Ruud van Nistelrooy, clapping frantically on the sidelines, is not lifting a player bereft of confidence.
Perhaps things will look different when the signing of Matthijs De Ligt is complete, and new signings Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee are able to make their mark. For now, Evans has been struggling with illness, Luke Shaw is injured again, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (who made 20 league starts last season) is joining West Ham.
There will be little time for the new additions to get up to speed – they are needed now. That was certainly the consensus as McAtee hit the post on his first City start.
Last season, Ten Hag admits, was derailed by a staggering sum of 66 injuries; it is just as well those gains Ineos have promised in their first full season are only supposed to be “marginal”.
Some of that job will fall to Omar Berrada, the new CEO poached from across the divide, who was roundly booed by City fans when he appeared on the big screens.
Still, as the familiar drum of a new season kicked into life, the mundanity of this annual affair was somehow a refreshing change – this was a weekend when we had been warned of the potential for widespread trouble at matches across the country.
It was a quiet hum of blue and red shirts that strode peacefully on their way towards the national stadium.
Football is back, albeit not with a bang.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/dmb4M8k
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