Manchester Derby Analysis: Costly City Mistakes Gifts United All The Three Points.
Manchester United invited their town rivals, Manchester City in a nerve-wracking derby match at Old Trafford.
Formation Preview:
Manchester United lined up in a 3-4-1-2 formation but later shifted to back 4 in the course of the game. Bruno Fernandez linked the midfield with the attacking duo where Daniel James and Anthony Martial were located.
On the other hand, Man City uses their normal 4-3-3 formation but shifted to at least formations during the match. They used 2-3-5 when in attacking mode, 4-2-3-1 and 4-2-2-2 without possession.
Tactics Used:
Guardiola's inverted midfielder and temporary Left-back.
During the initial stages, Ikay Gundögan played as a temporary left back while Oleksandr Zhinchenko occupied the midfield position thus he was an inverted midfielder.
This tactic worked as Greenwood was attracted to mark Zhinchenko leaving Gundaögan totally free. This didn't last long, Manchester United knew the trick and Greenwood no longer followed Zhinchenko.
Manchester United's Half-spaces Closure.
Ole Gunnar Solksjaer did his assigment very well as he used Fred and Matic to block the spaces between the Full backs and Centre backs. He did it because Man City like to attack using the half spaces with the combination of Gundögan and Bernardo Silva.
Manchester United's Midfield Overloads.
Ole knew that Manchester City's strongest part in their midfield as it is involved in the lost possession, they lined up in a 4-5-1 formation to get the numbers advantage.
Marking Rodrigo and Gundogan in the Build up.
Man City always like to build their play from the back and Manchester United were ready for that. Bruno Fernandez marked Rodrigo while Fred kept on tracking Gundögan.
But Pep Guardiola is a thinking machine. He was able to build up from the back by telling Bernardo Silva to drop just behind Fred and Fernandez and City were comfortably launching attacks from the midfield.
Why Man City Lost.
Lack of Creativity in the final third.
Playing without Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva, reduced the chances created per game.
Man City always creates an average of 3.54 clear chances per match but in this game, they created only 1.31. This shows how blunt City's creativity department was.
Poor Decision Making.
It was evidently when Gundögan, Rodri, Sterling and Foden had possession, they make make wrong decisions. This denied the Citizens chances to win the match.
Disorganized Defensive Structure.
Manchester City have been poor in defending corners and set-pieces this season. Congratulations to Bruno Fernandez cheeky pass which led to United's opener.
Ikay Gundögan kept on instructing Cancelo and Aguero to mark Anthony Martial and they ignored. Suprisingly, he scored from that space given by João Cancelo and Aguero!
Ederson's lack of composure during the game.
Manchester City's goalie, Ederson Moraes wasn't on his best yesterday as he kept making mistakes in the entire match. He almost gifted Anthony Martial a second goal after failing to control a back pass.
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| Ederson tries throwing the ball to Mendy but McTominay gets it to score the 2nd Man United goal. Photo: Sportskeeda. |
During the final stages, he gifted McTominay a goal by throwing the ball to Benjamin Mendi which went straight to the super sub (McTominay) who scored the second goal.
Conclusion:
Man City's title race hopes are now over after Man United's defeat. Liverpool would be crowned champions in their next 2 or 3 Premier League fixtures.
They try to focus on grabbing a UCL spot next season ( only if their ban will be lifted) but currently, they can work hard for a trebble [UCL, Carabao and F.A].
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