Manchester City 1-2 Manchester United: 5 Talking points & Tactical Analysis

#2 Manchester City weave plenty of pretty patterns without an end product

Kevin De Bruyne looked slightly off colour

Manchester City stuck four past Burnley on Tuesday, thereby ensuring that they warmed up perfectly for the Manchester Derby. However, those aspects failed to come to the fore on Saturday, meaning that the Sky Blues, despite enjoying the lion’s share of possession, were left ruing what could’ve been.

The hosts started the game brightly and got into a passing rhythm swiftly. In the first half, they created numerous situations where they got into good crossing positions. Yet, rather uncharacteristically, they fluffed their lines in the offensive third.

De Bruyne, for once, was wasteful with his crossing whereas Silva also wasn’t able to influence proceedings as much in the decisive attacking areas. Additionally, Sterling failed to come up trumps against Wan-Bissaka as Gabriel Jesus was left feeding off scraps for the entirety of the encounter.

More worryingly though, a rather recurring pattern came to the fore on Saturday. Unlike last season, City have failed to capitalise on their magnificent possession statistics, meaning that they’ve allowed teams an avenue to get back into the game.

The above was laid bare against Wolverhampton Wanderers and more recently, at Newcastle. And, unfortunately, those facets reared their ugly head when the Red Devils came calling.

Though it might be premature to label ‘GuardiolaBall’ as a fading philosophy in the Premier League, one can’t help but wonder if teams have started working out an antidote.

And, if that is indeed the case, the Spaniard has a monumental task on his hands trying to add another string to City’s already burgeoning bow.