Manchester United: The Butterfly Effect

Article by e-Manchester United Correspondent Noel Hutchinson

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When a butterfly flutters its wings it causes a storm on the other side of the world.

You may well have heard that phrase before, there was even a film called The Butterfly Effect.

Tolstoy explored the subject one hundred and fifty years before that in War and Peace and every government in history has struggled with trying to manage the intricacies and interconnectedness of humanity’s collective endeavour.

And the conclusion that is most commonly reached is that it’s impossible to fully control such a complex and unpredictable process.

And as in life, so in football.

The Manchester Derby is a case in point. David Moyes’ starting point was that he was in reality trying to manage a struggling group of players who are experiencing a very difficult part of their careers through a match against one of the best teams in world football who themselves need to get three points to keep them in the title race.

So he picked a team that was designed to match the City midfield in numbers and had some experience at the back, but also had enough going forward in terms of player quality with the likes of Mata and Rooney supported by two great wing-backs in Raphael and Evra to give City a hard time.

We were coming into the match from two positive results, but results against much weaker sides than City, so there was no doubt about how tough this was going to be; and the prospect of more “one step forward, three steps back” headlines dominating the papers for the next few days was very real.

So we kick off, Raphael slips and loses his man, the ball ricochets across the six yard area on to Dzeko’s foot and into the net after 48 seconds. You can’t predict that. You can’t control it either.

And so the ripples emanated from that point throughout the game. City players, boosted in confidence, relax and start knocking the ball about. Our boys struggle to win back the ball and the wind in their sails. Mata gets and scores, it’s 1-1 at half time and a different game altogether in the second half, with United buoyed by momentum and starting to swagger, City knocked-back with a few doubts in their minds making them play a bit safer, allowing United to push on to them, force them into errors, Company gets a second yellow and is sent off, United are getting chances and at last Mata gets his second…….

But as we know, what really happened was that Mata was a whisker of a degree away from scoring that first goal. We went in to half time a goal down. Rio lost Dzeko for a second and that was two for City, then three.

And next week we are up against the actual best team in the world. How on earth can we expect to get anything other than battered by them?

Then again, you never know, maybe a butterfly will be fluttering it’s wings somewhere in the world just now, and the ripples from that may arrive in Manchester just at the right time……..

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