Grand Master Ram Rod said:
I think Mancini would be stupid not to start AJ on weds, if there's one thing we know from previous derbies, it's United can't handle skillful wingers. Evra, Fletcher, Vidic, Rio, etc. kicked fuck out of SWP 2 seasons ago and the same last year with Bellers. AJ is the sort of player who can get them booked and then sent off.
I'd also put SWP on the bench and bring him on to run at them in the second half, get a few more booked.
We should go for this, we're not shitty City any more, our squad is as good as theirs. As we're at home we should attack them and make them worry about us rather than the other way round. It'd be daft not to start with AJ and Silva.
I disagree with pretty much all of this. What you absolutely cannot afford in these types of games is a passenger, unless they are absolutely shit-hot and can conjure something ridiculous up.
Arsenal have Arshavin (ish - well, last season anyway)
We have Balotelli.
Madrid have Ronaldo.
There are more examples, but not many.
Sorry, but Johnson just doesn't fall into this category, but he definitely does tend to be a passenger. He's generally ineffective for large chunks of a game, he's not good enough at defending, he gives the ball away too often, and he doesn't have the superstar quality (yet?) to do what those mentioned above can do.
Now don't get me wrong, I think he's a good player now, and has the potential to be an excellent player, but he needs to mature A LOT before he's deemed worthy of a starting place in these games.