Thomas Hein
As the dust settled after the first Manchester derby between Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho, it was the Spaniard who came away with all three points. Kelechi Iheanacho scored the decisive goal but Kevin De Bruyne was the star of the show for the Citizens.
Even the goal from Zlatan Ibrahimovic was not enough for the Red Devils and there will be a lot of analysis going on at Old Trafford. It was Manchester United who came into the game with all the talk and hype but they failed to deal with an impressive City side.
Jose Mourinho was at it again, blaming the referee and also stating that his players were not up for it but where did it really go wrong for United?
All starts with the line-up
The biggest surprise was seeing the likes of Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan starting the game for Manchester United. Mkhitaryan had not started a game for United in the league this season and his inexperience showed.
The Armenian was guilty of giving the ball away many times during the game and it certainly was weird not seeing Anthony Martial start. The young Frenchman would have been a handful for the City wing-backs and could have pressurised them into mistakes.
While Mkhitaryan was a poor choice to go with, in such a big game, there was another player that Manchester United could have targeted.
Claudio Bravo made his Premier League debut and he did have a few hairy moments, as it was his mistake that led Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score United’s only game. But it was a real surprise to see why he was not tested more often.
The Chilean is not used to such a physical game and United should have peppered him with crosses and made his life uncomfortable. Bravo also did not really have to do a lot as there were a number of United players who were flat.
Poor play and decision-making
Manchester United just could not deal with the creativity and movement of David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne. While they had Paul Pogba in midfield, the Frenchman barely threatened in the game. Marouane Fellaini is the last person on earth who could keep a track on the talented City pair and it showed in the game.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic also was a little off colour but he did get the goal. The Swede could have done a lot more for Manchester United but was another player that was below par. Not playing Martial from the start was another big mistake by Mourinho as his directness would certainly have helped United a lot more than Mkhitaryan’s misplaced passes.
The entire Manchester United team was below par to be honest and Jose was right at having a go at them after the game.
The new Manchester United manager will not be taking this lightly and he would be chalking out a plan to correct these from the next game onwards.
For now, Manchester is blue with Pep Guardiola picking up a satisfying win over his long-time rival but Mourinho will have a plan set for the next time they meet. That will surely be another great game filled with drama and talking points.
