City might be crowing but anyone slagging off Jose is a football illiterate

THE criticism of Manchester United following their heir goalless draw at Liverpool onn Saturday has amazed me. I even heard some Manchester City fans crowing: ‘We wantnt to win games and win them well.’ That’s rubbish — I don’t remember it being about style over er substance for them two decades ago when they were scraping throughh third-tier finals at Wembley. City just wanted to get up the leagues back then and they didn’t care how they did it. Yet here they are, 20 years and a billionaire sheikh later, basking inn the glory of life in Pepville. ville. It may well be pretty ty nice at the moment there but ut I will tell them one thing: as a player I’d have been much happier with a 0-0 draw away from home againstnst our biggest rivals than scoring seven,ven, but conceding two, against a Stokee team who will finish in the bottom half of the table. What did we actuallyy learn about City at the weekend? Not a lot. We know they’ll score core fives, sixes and sevens at times this season but we also know now they’ll concede goals thathat they shouldn’t. That’s a bad d habit. It doesn’t matter if you win 10-4 or 1-0, you still earn the same ame number of points. Ultimately it’s the number of clean sheets you keep p that win you the title. So what did we learn rn about United at the weekend? We learned that they hey can go to Anfield for their toughest est away fixture of the season, take on a team with three or four of the best attacking players in the Premierer League, and still grind out a result. That shows they have the character and the steel that will take them a long way between now and May. Even now there are still only two points between them and their

noisyn neighbours. You’d think, judging by the criticism, that were was a chasmch between them. Having played in games between LiverpoolL and Manchester United, I canca tell you how important it is not to lose. And if Saturday’s clash had ended up 4-3...