Manchester United: Derby Report

The Manchester derby on 10^th September was a highly anticipated game. Why wouldn’t it be? What was once upon a time a clash between Mighty Manchester United and their neighbours who lived in their shadow, was now a clash between equals. The managers who had previously clashed in the El Classico had now shifted their rivalry to Manchester. The two teams had spent the most amount of money in the summer transfer window. They had between them 7 out of the last 10 EPL trophies.

Both the teams had secured 9 points from 3 games. Also they sent out a combined 22 players which were the most expensively assembled starting line ups ever seen in a club football game.

United started the game with a 4-2-3-1 formation. They had the taller players on the pitch and commentators prior to the game were saying that they could pose a problems to City on set pieces. Another aspect of United’s game was to play on the counter and with speed, which was evident in their benching of Juan Mata in favour of Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

City were without their main striker, Sergio Aguero due to a suspension. The signs all seemed to favour United.

City started the game with a 4-3-3 formation with 19 year old Kelechi Iheanacho leading the line, with Raheem Sterling and Nolito.

From the moment the game started United looked clueless. Their two holding midfielders seemed to be lost and Kevin De Bruyne was drifting past them at will. Mkhitaryan who had suffered a minor injury on International duty seemed to be off the pace throughout (he had put in a better shift against Dortmund on the pre-season). The first goal was partly his error as he did not press and allowed City an easy clearance. What followed was a passing masterclass, lack of communication between United’s centre backs and KDB just vroomed past and smashed the ball into the net. Daley Blind was just standing like a statue, he didn’t make any attempt to win the ball should Eric Bailly lose it, as he did.

Then what followed was just City passing the ball at will (like how Barcelona used to do in their prime) United looked like an amateur team who were giving City a practice match. The second goal was again the entire team, particularly Blind’s fault, as he played Iheanacho onside and could pounce on the shot from KDB which had rebounded off the post.

At 0-2 United were losing yet another derby at Old Trafford and even Jose Mourinho looked clueless at the touchline at that moment.

They did manage to mount some sort of a comeback and the height advantage caused problems for the City defence with Bravo (who was playing his first game for the club) leaping up to catch a ball, fumbling it and presenting it to Zlatan Ibrahimovic who smashed it in.

Score 1-2 42 minutes.

In the 46^th minute Zlatan was presented the ball on a plate and could have just walked into the goal as the goalkeeper who had gone out to stop Jesse Lingard failed to do so and was on the floor, but he took his shot too hastily and the ball was cleared by the defenders on the line.

The second half saw the withdrawal of Lingard and Mkhitarayn. Completely validated in my opinion as the duo had looked completely clueless. The formation shifted to a 4-1-4-1 with Fellaini moving forward from central defence to play along with Rooney. Rashford took Mkhitaryan’s spot on the right wing and Herrera replaced Lingard on the left.

Rashford looked the most threatening player on the pitch and one wonders why he didn’t start the game after his debut hat-trick on debut for the England U-21s. H even scored a goal but as it nicked Zlatan on the way it was ruled offside. Zlatan seemed to be non-existent throughout the game and kept getting in the way of his own players.

City shored up in defence and just protected their lead. United threw on Anthony Martial for Luke Shaw and shifted to a back 3. It didn’t work, time just ticked away.

United lost the game and also their 100% record in the League. Their noisy neighbours had gotten one over them yet again.

Looking back though, this was a performance that was much better than what we saw under Louis Van Gaal last season. His sideways passing game would have been dismantled by Guardiola’s pass masters.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s face shown on the TV in the 90^th minute summed up how every Manchester United fan was feeling at that moment. It was a devastating loss and something Sir Alex wasn’t accustomed to during his 26 year reign as manager.

What went wrong?

The Central defensive pairing of Bailly and Blind. Originally it was thought that Blind was going to be sold of be a 3^rd choice, but his form combined with Smalling’s pre-season injury and suspension led to him being promoted to 1^st choice along with Bailly. They did manage to hold out against Bournemouth, Hull and Southampton, but not against top quality opposition and to win the league you need to beat the top teams. Solution draft in Smalling with Bailly or even with Blind as last season the combination of Smalling and Blind were a feature of the meanest defence in the Premier League.

Lack of rotation of the CDM’s. Pogba and Fellaini have started every game. Why not rotate and give Schniderlin and Herrera a chance to play?

Reluctance to play Rashford from the start. Does Mourinho not trust young players?

Rooney. The biggest problem in the team who for the past 3 seasons just seems to be in the team because he is the captain. He has completely lost his place and is the 3^rd or 4^th best no.10 in the team. It is due to him that Mata, Herrera and Mkhitaryan were forced to play out wide.

Will Jose Mourinho address these concerns? It seems as if he may as he isn’t stubborn like Van Gaal which can be seem as he changed his tactics halfway and even was shouting out instructions at his team during the game. Let's hope that this result was just a minor blip.

Next game is in the Europa League against Feyenoord.