By Mark Vincent Lincir

You don’t buy a Ferrari to drive it around in first gear. You don’t date a hottie so that people will ignore you. And you don’t ask one of the most potent clubs in the world to sit back and defend in order to try and grind out a point!

When Sir Alex introduced a lineup that included Park and Giggs but omitted Valencia and Welback you could see that the Man Utd boss was content to share the points. But Monday’s derby was NEVER going to be about sharing points.

Manchester City knew they HAD to take all the points in order to still have a chance at the title. And take all the points is exactly what they did. Vincent Kompany’s brilliant header before the break was all City needed to propel themselves into the top spot with their arch-rivals with only a fortnight left in the season.

Did Sir Alex get it wrong? Am I questioning the tactics of arguably the best manager the game has ever seen?

Yes, I am!

Why start Park in a running role in the midfield instead of the explosive Valencia or lightning quick Young? Giggs definitely has the experience, but against the fleet-footed cast that City fielded, he was a step slow. I know that the result would have been different had Valencia and Welback started in Lieu of Giggs and Park. But what do I know? I predicted a Rooney brace and a convincing 2-1 victory for Utd. I could not have been more wrong!

In the back, I think that sliding Smalling out wide and putting Jones in the middle would have worked better as well. It’s hard to put the second-guessing aside when a manager that I respect so much makes such a mess of such a massive match.

The title race is as tight as it can get with only goal differential separating the two super clubs (that was for you, Alexi Lalas!). And it looks like Manchester City have all the momentum going into the last bit of this incredibly compelling run for the title.

Man Utd can’t sit back and absorb pressure…they are built to impose their will on the opposition. And even against a talent-overloaded side such as City, that is still exactly what they should have tried to do.

Mark Vincent Lincir is the author of THE GIFT OF STOPPAGE TIME. Follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/mvlincir.