Manchester City 1-2 Manchester United: 5 players who were brilliant for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side

Modified Dec 09, 2019 09:48 GMT

Manchester City v Manchester United - Premier League

2. Scott McTominay

The Scottish midfielder's return to the first team instantly turned their performance and fortunes around. McTominay’s dominance in the middle of the park was vital against Tottenham and the young man was fit enough to start against City too. With the home side keeping the majority of the ball, United had to be alert and decisive on the field. The Scottish midfielder led the charge for his team, running around like a man possessed, refusing to surrender.

McTominay provided an effective screen ahead of the United backline, protecting them and cutting out space for the City midfielders to operate. He pressed the ball relentlessly and played close attention to David Silva, ensuring that the Spaniard had a quiet night. When he had the ball at his feet, he wasted little time to send his forwards free, countering City’s tactics. His awareness of his teammates helped United break at speed and take advantage of the spaces left behind by the City team.

After United took the lead, the Scottish midfielder continued to work his socks off, even putting his body on the line to protect the lead on a couple of occasions. He also won free-kicks at important junctures of the game to stop City from gaining momentum.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

Know More

Edited by Vishal Subramanian