THE VERDICT: CITY 3 UNITED 1
HOW Jose Mourinho must wish he could transplant his brain to some of his United players’ bodies.
He appeared agitated as City toyed with his players in the opening exchanges and it was fitting Luke Shaw’s body was the one to react slowest as the champions reaffirmed their Manchester superiority.
Shaw looked once and then twice at Bernardo Silva, but while he was watching the man, Raheem Sterling played the ball. Bernardo had edged ahead of him to pull-back for David Silva’s fourth derby goal on 12 minutes. Mourinho once half-credited his brain for a Shaw performance against Everton, but the left-back disengaged against the sneaky Silva. The finest margins illustrate gaping chasms in football.
Victor Lindelof was caught on his heels by Cristiano Ronaldo, yet Juventus failed to exert their superiority and United punished them. At the Etihad, it was Sergio Aguero who schooled Lindelof, only that made it 2-0. Wednesday night’s revival and United’s comeback at the Etihad in April ensured City would not squander their advantage for a second time this year.
Lindelof has had a relatively accomplished week and it is no disgrace to be out-thought by Ronaldo or Aguero, yet that is the level United aspire to return to and they do not have enough elite players. That issue was exacerbated by Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez’s injuries that denied them starts.
Pogba watched on from the stands while Sanchez was introduced in vain.
Aguero’s goal stemmed from Jesse Lingard’s heavy touch. Ilkay Gundogan’s clincher capitalised on Nemanja Matic’s ball-watching. Three individual errors, three goals. The margins were that fine.
Lindelof actually pointed at Gundogan for Nemanja Matic to shadow him and the Serbian stood motionless as the ball was clipped over to kill off United’s resistance in the 86th minute.
Mourinho, constantly on the edge of the technical area, attempted to position his players and reassure them. “It’s okay,” he told Anthony Martial as he passed the ball into touch. After the first goal, the Reds boss reverted to bad cop mode and pierced the air.
It was not a question of whether United would concede, but how many. True to form, they let in the first for the seventh time in their last nine and the first 45 minutes only developed into a competitive encounter by City slackening. A Pep halftime team talk reinforced their focus and Aguero struck within three minutes of the restart.
No European club manager has claimed as many prized scalps as Mourinho has this calendar year. United have prevailed over City, Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Juve and four were revivals, yet it can only happen so many times against Europe’s eminent sides and United’s starting front six was incomparable with their neighbours.’
You have to wonder why United passed on Bernardo, a player Mourinho likes but never officially enquired about.
He was anointed David Silva’s heir by his namesake earlier in the week and even legislating for all the mitigating Mourinho factors and his preference for power players, it feels perverse that United did not challenge City for the Portuguese. Bernardo’s impact was perhaps the most telling on derby day.
It is such decisions that counter Mourinho’s insistence that he needed a defender and a forward in the summer. Samuel Luckhurst