Possession vs Pace - Who Will Win the FA Cup Final?
Around the Manchester United training ground, the talk has been growing for the past few weeks, even before they won the semi-final. There’s been that unmistakable vibe around their FA Cup run, one that’s different to other years, and has made their performances feel part of a separate campaign to a generally underwhelming league season. The squad fully acknowledge the need to finally win the competition for the first time in 12 years.
Around the Crystal Palace training ground, however, that vibe has been growing even longer. Part of that is probably because they are aiming to win the trophy - and any senior piece of silverware at all, for that matter - for the first time ever. Some at Selhurst Park say Alan Pardew was told to concentrate on the FA Cup above anything else even before the third round, to make this a season to remember.
That perhaps explains why they have suffered such a decline in the league, but it only further fires Saturday’s showdown. There’s a real novelty to this year’s FA Cup final because it means so much to both clubs, and managers. Victory could legitimise entire seasons, and even managerial reigns. All of the discussion about Palace’s poor league run will evaporate into nothing if they provide the win that would supersede everything in the club’s history.
So much of the bad feeling about Louis van Gaal, meanwhile, will dissipate if he is able to bow out - as now seems almost certain - with a trophy. It would also mean the FA Cup provides yet another profound moment in United's history. The trophy was the first that Sir Matt Busby won as a manager at Old Trafford, the first that the club won after the tragedy of the Munich Air Disaster, the only silverware that sustained them through the barren decades of the 1970s and 1980s, the first won by Sir Alex Ferguson and now - potentially - the first won since the great Scot retired.
So, for once, it’s not a cliche: this could really come down to who wants it most; or, at least, who is able to raise their game the most. That has been the story of their runs to the final after all. United have suddenly been able to spark into life in a way almost alien to them in the league, most notably in the quarter-final replay win away to West Ham, and then the brilliant last-minute Anthony Martial winner against Everton that put them into the final.
It has sometimes been as if that vibe about the cup off the pitch has had a tangible effect on it, lifting their game. In the semi-final against Everton, they took 22 shots, compared to an average of just 11.3 in the league. Their passing has just contained that bit more zip. If they can fully apply themselves in that way in the final, then their superior talent should shine through.
The problem will be if they don’t, or if Palace’s mercurial talents apply themselves more. It is the exciting element of Pardew’s side, even if they are often so beatable. They do have some real cup players, the erratic types that do rise to the occasion, that always at least offer the sense that something could be about to happen. That is clearest on the flanks, with one former United player. Wilf Zaha completed 3.7 dribbles per game in the league this season, and was the most fouled player in the division, at 2.6 per game. Yannick Bolasie isn’t too far behind in terms of those runs, completing 2.9 dribbles per game.
If Palace release them, and if they’re in the type of mood when the buzz of the stadium brings out their magic, that glorious chaos could undo Van Gaal’s control. The wonder will be if United can take sufficient command of the ball to pre-emptively subdue that. That is what this game comes down to: passing precision against radical running, testing each other to see which defence buckles first.
Either way, after disappointing seasons, it’s all building up to this for both of them. They're well aware of the stakes. They just have to step up to them one last time.
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