Derby thrashing sends David Moyes back to the drawing board

Manchester United manager David Moyes looks on during the Premier League against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, on September 22, 2013. (Getty Images)

But Sunday’s chastening must surely prompt a rethink in United’s strategy, not least in the back four where Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidi? were over-powered by City’s vibrant attacking unit. For the first time this season the pair looked its age and more. With Patrice Evra also advancing into his 30s, Moyes has deployed three veterans in his back four in each of United’s matches this season.

Here too they will seemingly drained from those in Red. United’s rearguard was given such little protection that Vidi?’s attempt to berate Antonio Valencia for failing to track his runner had the air of resigned apathy.

On the other flank Ashley Young’s contempt for defending was matched only by a chronic fear of ball-retention that bordered on the obsessive so often did the former Aston Villa winger concede possession.

Meanwhile, Michael Carrick and Marouanne Fellaini were reduced to hapless spectators, with City utterly superior in central midfield.

Fellaini was billed in some quarters as United’s answer to City’s Yaya Touré; on this evidence the Reds might have better recruited Kolo, such was the Belgian’s ineffectiveness.

He remains a puzzle. The £27 million man, who neither adds bite to the defensive side of United’s midfield, nor breaks up play through superior positioning. Nor, it seems, does he offer a counter-part to Carrick’s passivity on these occasions.

Aggressive at set-pieces, and effective around the box, Fellaini still has much to prove at this level. Not least in a deep-lying role where the Belgian’s limited defensive instincts were exposed in two of City’s four goals.

Indeed, Moyes’s decision to push Fellaini forward as the game drew to a close may be the forebear of an approach to come, with United seeking to exploit the Belgian’s power in the air, rather than his ineffectual ability on the ball. Look away those who hope to match rivals’ short-passing game.

Elsewhere, United’s creative fizz popped, as it has in four of six games in all competitions this season. After all, those two Rooney free-kicks and a Robin van Persie penalty are all United has to show for matches against Chelsea, Liverpool and City this season.

Meanwhile, two of Moyes’s most creative options in Shinji Kagawa and Nani sat on the bench. Unused, perhaps unloved, while new signing Wilfried Zaha and wonderkid Adnan Januzaj watched on from the stands. It is enough to prompt the question of just what hold Young – the most wretched of all – retains over his new manager.

It is a conservative approach that can only frustrate, but one a decade-long in the making during Moyes’ time at Everton. Even the Scot’s lone substitution – Tom Cleverley – was designed to limit damage inflicted rather than restore any squandered pride.

Still, with Liverpool at Old Trafford on Wednesday there is little time for a radical rethink in approach, although there was much talk in the aftermath of “a response”. It is already a hackneyed sentiment.

Talk is cheap, unlike United’s one summer acquisition, and in the end Moyes was reduced to limp platitudes in praise of the traveling support.

“Whether it’s a derby or somebody else, you don’t want to lose,” admitted Moyes.

“It does make it worse when you want to do so well for your supporters. I thought our supporters were great today, under the circumstances. Whatever manager loses a game, you get on and try to win the next game. You just play the next game and see how you go. We’ll do everything we can to win the next one.”

The Scot has little choice but to field a full-strength side against Brendan Rogers’s outfit; defeat escalating United’s slow start to a full-blown crisis, at least in the more hyperbolic red-tops.

Whether that line-up includes those largely repudiated this season will define the coming weeks.