The defender of Manchester United, Patrice Evra, has said that Roberto Mancini made a big mistake by not including Carlos Tevez in the starting XI in the Manchester Derby game which was played at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. City lost that match by a narrow margin of 3-2. This was City’s first defeat in the ongoing Premier League. However, despite that defeat, City is still at no. 2 in the points table with 33 points in 16 matches. Manchester United is at the top of the table with 39 points in 16 matches.
Carlos Tevez was expected to start the Manchester Derby match, but, surprisingly, he was kept out of the starting XI and on his place, Mario Balotelli was included in the starting XI. Tevez was sent on to the field in the 52nd minute of the match.
Roberto Mancini’s decision of preferring Balotelli ahead of Tevez was surprising because Balotelli had not been in great touch before this match. He had scored just two goals in the season before this match.
The match was quite close and at one point of time, it was heading towards a draw, but, Robin Van Persie scored a match winning goal for United in the injury time and secured yet another victory for United. The earlier two goals for United were scored by Wayne Rooney. While, for City, the goal scorers were Yaya Toure and P. Zabaleta.
Talking to the reporters after the match, Evra said, “I was pretty surprised to see that Tevez was not in the starting XI. I had expected him to start the match. I told my teammates that it’s good for us as Tevez could be very dangerous on his day.”
“I think they missed the trick by keeping Tevez out of the starting line up. He is their best striker and he should have been out there from the very first minute.”