What a strange stat. ManU has drawn 13 times this season, more than any other club in the EPL, and has lost only three times, two fewer than Swine Chelsea and co-best in the league with Spurs. I would have bet those were City's stats.
What's the conventional wisdom on that? ("I don't know" is the honest answer but I shall speculate.) It seems to me one plays for a draw when one blows. City in the bad old pre-Revolution days. Every pint was precious, could be the diff between continuing to sip fine wine with Sir Alex and chugging spiked piss in the Championship.
And Mou has done that before! Not with relegation-threatened teams but with good teams who were up against it against a superior opponent. Like City a couple years ago. "Parked the bus" in front of City's strike force. Let 'em wail away. Rope-a-dope. Worked, as I recall! I think they beat us that match. ALMOST worked for Mark Hughes and the dreadful QPR team he brought to the city in the coronary-inducing finale to the 2012 season. Clearly, Mou doesn't have the hosses to chase a trophy this year. He'a currently on Europa. BUT, he still has a good shot at the Champs League next season, he is only one pint and two goals behind City with each having five matches to play (United are two and two behind the "Cannibals", City one and even, each WITH A GAME IN HAND on the "'Bals".) A loss at City last Thursday would have severely dented the Chevy. And he was without Ibrahimovic and Rios and Rooney probably was drunk again. What to do? AVOID THE "L"! At all costs, avoid a loss. That was a six point match. A loss would have left the Chevy in a ditch four points back; a win would have put them two in front and level on points with Liverpool. Playing the odds, at City and without his talisman, Mou calculated to play for the one point with the draw--live to play the remaining five in other words, no worse off than when he started the day. That's what he did.
What's the conventional wisdom on that? ("I don't know" is the honest answer but I shall speculate.) It seems to me one plays for a draw when one blows. City in the bad old pre-Revolution days. Every pint was precious, could be the diff between continuing to sip fine wine with Sir Alex and chugging spiked piss in the Championship.
And Mou has done that before! Not with relegation-threatened teams but with good teams who were up against it against a superior opponent. Like City a couple years ago. "Parked the bus" in front of City's strike force. Let 'em wail away. Rope-a-dope. Worked, as I recall! I think they beat us that match. ALMOST worked for Mark Hughes and the dreadful QPR team he brought to the city in the coronary-inducing finale to the 2012 season. Clearly, Mou doesn't have the hosses to chase a trophy this year. He'a currently on Europa. BUT, he still has a good shot at the Champs League next season, he is only one pint and two goals behind City with each having five matches to play (United are two and two behind the "Cannibals", City one and even, each WITH A GAME IN HAND on the "'Bals".) A loss at City last Thursday would have severely dented the Chevy. And he was without Ibrahimovic and Rios and Rooney probably was drunk again. What to do? AVOID THE "L"! At all costs, avoid a loss. That was a six point match. A loss would have left the Chevy in a ditch four points back; a win would have put them two in front and level on points with Liverpool. Playing the odds, at City and without his talisman, Mou calculated to play for the one point with the draw--live to play the remaining five in other words, no worse off than when he started the day. That's what he did.
