Manchester United 0-2 Manchester City: 3 huge things that the Red Devils got wrong on the day

Modified Apr 25, 2019 10:25 GMT

Manchester United v Manchester City - Premier League

Manchester United welcomed their neighbours, Manchester City on Wednesday night at Old Trafford in the Premier League and the home side lost the match 2-0, thanks to goals from Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane.

In the first half, Manchester United started with energy and intensity and they were looking a different side from the one that played Everton last weekend but that early pressure soon became invincible and City started dominating the ball.

While there weren't many clear cut chances for the away side in the first half, they were able to draw out some saves from David de Gea. United, on the other hand, were doing well to keep the City side quiet and the first half ended all square.

The second half of the match saw the same pattern of play as City dominated the possession but this time they made it count with Bernardo Silva striking a low drive and beating De Gea on the near post.

The second goal was scored by Sane who came on for Fernandinho in the second half. It was a proper counterattacking goal when Raheem Sterling burst his way into the United half and squared it to Sane whose shot was too powerful for David to keep out.

After that goal, it was all about seeing the game off and City did just that and took a huge stride towards that Premier League Trophy.

In this article, we take a look at the 3 things that the Red Devils got wrong against City:

#3 Team Selection

Manchester United made loads of changes against City as Matteo Darmian, Luke Shaw, Andreas Pereira, Ashley Young, and Jesse Lingard all came in.

But I think Ole Gunnar Solskjaer missed a trick here as he should have opted for Romelu Lukaku in place of Lingard, and Diogo Dalot in place of Ashley Young.

Lukaku would have been a better fit than Lingard as United were looking to play on the counter against City and they would have been helped with the physicality of the Belgian and his ability to hold the ball until the runners arrive.

Also, Dalot should have been preferred over Young as the Portuguese is much more suited to play as a wing-back than Young and his pace would have really helped United to break at speed on the counter.

#2 Not pressing the City backline enough

This was something Manchester United were doing in the early parts of the first half and they were clearly causing some problems but for some reason, they just stopped pressing after the 20th-minute mark which just didn't make any sense.

Maybe that is down to the fitness of the players but that really caused United's downfall as they allowed City to do what they do the best, that is dictate the pace of the match.

Soon enough, City found themselves with loads of possession and they started to open United's backline and that also hurt the home side attacking-wise.

#1 Giving too much space to City's midfield in the second half

What Manchester United were doing very well in the first half was that they weren't allowing the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, David Silva, and Bernardo Silva to find those pockets of space in between the center backs and the midfield and that thwarted City's creativity.

But in the second half, Fred, Paul Pogba and Andreas Pereira were guilty of not marking City's midfielders properly and that is what led to the away side's opener as Bernardo found some space in between the pitch, which exposed Shaw to a one-on-one situation with the Portuguese.

While Shaw can also be faulted for allowing Bernardo onto his stronger left foot but if United had kept up the intensity they showed in the first half, the result could have been very different.

Edited by Sudeshna Banerjee