Injuries could still stump Pep
IS IT CRAZY TO SUGGEST CITY CANNOT BE CAUGHT IN THE TITLE RACE NOW?
ROBSON — Yes, you can never say it’s over at this stage. Fixture pile-ups, injuries, form, they can all play a part between now and May. If City lose David Silva or Kevin De Bruyne, they are a different prospect. What United have to do is shrug off today’s performance, where City were by far the dominant team, and start a good run. They don’t have a bad Christmas fixture list on paper. They have to stick in there and ensure that, at the end of the season, they have given it their best shot. They missed Paul Pogba’s presence. He can dictate the tempo, has the capacity to go past people and makes a big difference to the team.
TUEART — No it’s not. The top sides all have quality players but City have about 16 to 18. Today confirmed what I thought, that there is a greater resilience about this side as well as quality. They have such fluidity going forward that it destructs the organisation of the opposition, forcing them into long balls. City must be so irritating to face and they work incredibly hard to win the ball back. They ran six kilometres more than United at Old Trafford. Obviously it would be a concern if Silva or De Bruyne got injured, but Pep Guardiola is already putting in a line of succession with Bernardo Silva and Gabriel Jesus, plus blooding youngsters such as Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz. They will be difficult to stop.
SHOULD UNITED HAVE HAD A PENALTY FOR OTAMENDI’S CHALLENGE ON HERRERA?
TUEART — It was never a penalty, he didn’t touch him. To see Jose prior to the game criticise City players for going down too easily, then claiming that Otamendi’s challenge was a penalty, seems hypocritical to me. It’s sad but he is protecting his own players I suppose.
ROBSON — It was 50-50 for me. I believe Ander had a little bit of a case and some refs have given those in recent seasons. I don’t agree with those that say it was never a penalty. Otamendi should have gone into the challenge differently. It certainly looked like he stepped on to him.
MAN OF THE MATCH?
TUEART — It was a double award for me with Silva and De Bruyne. To see Silva making sliding tackles and showing a desire to fight with Nemanja Matic shows the mentality Pep has given this group. The front three feed so well off the creativity of De Bruyne and Silva.
ROBSON — Antonio Valencia kept going forward and tried to push United’s team along. He had a very difficult job keeping Leroy Sane in check as the young German has been tearing defences to ribbons this season, but Antonio stuck to his task well. Otherwise we had too many players off the pace in this game.