City vs United Preview

I fucking hate derbies so this one will be relatively short and sweet.

Team
Mancini has said that Silva, Clichy and Milner could all play, so here's the team the Italian could select:

You'll notice that - Zabaleta and Nastasic aside - it's the exact same eleven that started in the 6-1 win at Old Trafford last October. Silva won't be restricted to the left as it's unlikely that he'll have so much defending to do other as United are without Valencia and Nani, Ashley Young is their only fit winger. Similarly, Milner won't be used strictly as a winger but will be expected to fill in for the Ivorian should he go charging forward.
I'm convinced Balotelli will start for a number of reasons, the simplest of which being that Mancini rested both he and Aguero on Tuesday night. I say rested because it was quite clear that, well, we weren't that arsed. Up to Mario how he plays, if he's up for it and is composed just as he was away to United last season, he can win the game for City, as long as he gets the service his runs require.

Despite what Ferguson has said, there's every chance that Vidic and/or Kagawa could feature, it's all part of the 'mind games'. However, they will certainly be without Valencia, Nani and Anderson. Valencia hasn't had the greatest of seasons thus far but has proved over the past couple of years how dangerous he can be, so him being out is a bonus for City, as is the injury to Nani who, despite his incredible inconsistency, always seems to perform against us.
 Ferguson may be forced into playing Fletcher and Carrick in midfield, and he may also play Scholes if he wants to keep the ball with Rooney playing behind either van Persie and Welbeck or van Persie and Hernandez. Everything will go through Rooney for them, that much I'm sure of.

Midfield
Ask a group of United fans to select the City player they'd like most in their team and about four-fifths of them would answer without a moment's hesitation; "Yaya Toure". Given how big an influence he's been in recent derbies, I can't say that I'd expect any different, nor are they wrong to desire Yaya as he is quite simply, a fantastic player. An absolute monster. However, he's been a constant in City's midfield for however many months and looks to be suffering from fatigue. Consequently, he can be something of a liability in defensive midfield where much of the dirty work goes on. He had a rest in midweek so should be fresher than most of the rest, if he's up for it, I don't envisage any United player stopping him from exposing the gaps in their midfield. I suppose Rooney could drop deeper and sit on Yaya, but he's failed to complete similar similar tasks in the past for both club and country.
If he doesn't fancy going on one of those runs, then it will be up to Silva to find the space between the lines that he often does so well, he's got to make himself impossible to mark, always moving. If Tevez doesn't play, he'll have a lot more space to himself in the final third as Carlos often occupies not only much of the same space as Aguero but also as David when he plays alongside Kun, which is why, in my opinion, City are  best served playing him up front on his own when he plays. That'll never happen though, not while we've got four £24m+ strikers.

In short, City will have much of the ball in the second half, less so in the first half, but will win the game if they can stifle Rooney.