How Manchester City dominated Manchester United

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Manchester City demonstrated the gulf between themselves and Manchester United with this comfortable derby win. Of all the chastening defeats for the home team since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, this was up there with the most comprehensive. It left Erik ten Hag’s team with five losses from their first 10 Premier League games – the most United have suffered in their opening 10 league games since 1986/87.

City, meanwhile, closed the gap to two points on early Premier League leaders Tottenham. The prolific Erling Haaland put City ahead from the penalty spot after Rasmus Højlund dragged down Rodri. Haaland then took his league goals tally to 11 in 10 games with a free header, before teeing up Phil Foden for the third. 

The second half was something of a stroll for City. For United, it was prolonged agony as the inquest on this latest defeat awaited.

How the managers saw it

“The second goal helped us a lot,” said Pep Guardiola. “I like it because from the first minute we thought they would be more aggressive in the second half and they were, but we made incredible build-ups with Rúben [Dias] and Ederson.

“Bernardo [Silva] made a good action, Erling scored the second goal and that was the key point of the game. Except the first five or 10 minutes, that we lost easy balls because we didn’t do simple things – the easiest thing in football – and we allowed them to make transitions that could punish us. But after the goal, the first half was good in general, but the second half after 2-0 was brilliant.”

“First half we had a very good game plan,” said Ten Hag. “The execution was also very good. It was toe-to-toe first and it was very similar, but then the penalty changed the moment. Then, in the second half, we chose to become more offensive and it is 2-0 too quickly. From that point on it was a difficult game.”

Below, our UEFA-licensed coaches have picked out the key tactical points from the game…

Starting line-ups

Manchester UnitedManchester City

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Manchester United4-2-3-1

Manchester City3-4-2-1

24André Onana

31Ederson

2Victor Lindelöf

2Kyle Walker

35Jonny Evans

3Rúben Dias

5Harry Maguire

24Josko Gvardiol

20Diogo Dalot

16Rodri

4Sofyan Amrabat

5John Stones

14Christian Eriksen

19Julián Álvarez

10Marcus Rashford

20Bernardo Silva

39Scott McTominay

47Phil Foden

8Bruno Fernandes

10Jack Grealish

11Rasmus Højlund

9Erling Haaland

City playing around the United block
Guardiola set Manchester City up in a 3-4-2-1 structure in possession, but the wide areas were key to their attacking play. On the left side, Jack Grealish maintained a width that would often pull United right-back Diogo Dalot out of the hosts’ back line. The England international could then look for narrow runs in behind from Silva (below), into areas from which the latter could aim crosses at Haaland. It was from such a combination that Haaland should have scored his second in the first half, and then eventually did early in the second.

John Stones often pushed forward from his starting position alongside Rodri in City’s double pivot, to join Julián Álvarez in more attacking central areas. This worked to occupy United’s double pivot, allowing Silva to go untracked. Unless Bruno Fernandes tracked all the way back, Grealish and Silva were able to repeatedly exploit the spaces beyond Dalot. Josko Gvardiol supported behind, ready to switch play across the back line if necessary.

City were almost as effective on the right, although in a different way. Rodri started to drop into the back line during the build-up, which allowed Kyle Walker to push forward earlier. Where Gvardiol played a supporting role underneath the attackers on the left, Walker looked to overlap and join the rotations with Phil Foden and Álvarez (below). When this happened, Stones would operate as the single pivot. Silva then stayed wide of the United double pivot on the opposite side, ready to combine with Grealish in the event of a City switch.

Despite City dominating possession throughout, they gave the ball away cheaply a number of times in the early stages. The hosts managed to work a number of dangerous counter-attacking moments, but despite beating City’s midfield counter-press and getting runners in behind, United’s decision-making and quality in the final third were poor. Once City had taken the lead through Haaland’s penalty on 26 minutes, they struggled to make an impact.

United’s half-time change
City maintained their attacking shape for the second half, but United made changes. Ten Hag replaced Sofyan Amrabat with Mason Mount, who operated as a number 10. Scott McTominay then dropped into the double pivot alongside Christian Eriksen, but if anything this made the hosts even less defensively compact than they had been in the first half. One of Rodri or Stones continued to push forward to support the double-marked Haaland in central areas, occupying the United pivots as they did. This enabled City to overload the United full-backs on both sides (below). With access into their number 10s proving too easy, City carried a threat without the need for Walker to overlap on the right.

In possession, it looked like United’s switch represented an attempt to mirror City’s 3-4-2-1 shape (below). Bruno Fernandes and Mount operated behind Højlund, with Marcus Rashford maintaining the width on the left and Dalot pushing forward from right-back on the opposite flank. United’s double pivot never looked comfortable on the ball, however. They struggled to find spaces to receive through or around the first line of defence in City’s 4-4-2 block, and when they did get on the ball they too often lacked support. United’s best chance of a soul-destroying second half fell to Rashford after a hopeful long ball.

With City totally dominant, United’s double pivot became so concerned about the visitors’ two number 10s that they began to track their movements. This offered protection ahead of the full-backs, but with Rodri and Dias drawing Mount and Højlund forward, Stones was left to enjoy total freedom in the centre of the pitch (below).

With Haaland still occupying both United centre-backs, City were still able to work the ball into 2v2 situations on either flank. Their dominance in these areas allowed them to create more chances, with Haaland turning creator for Foden to put the finishing touch on a 3-0 victory that in no way flattered Guardiola’s team.

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Author: The Coaches' Voice