No high fives for United as dullest derby is devoid of excitement
UNITED were a win away from becoming the first top-flight side to win five successive Premier League matches this season and a defeat off matching Frank O’Farrell’s unwanted record of four home league losses before Christmas in 1972. Inevitably, the dullest derby ended in a draw.
It was such a hollow occasion there was not a booking until the 79th minute, in spite of Fernandinho’s most brazen fouling.
The occasion was so devoid of controversy or debate that a penalty rightly awarded to Marcus Rashford was rightly overturned as he received the ball in an offside position.
Fernandinho finally seeing yellow was the most noteworthy event of a contest where a corner flag committed one of the standout tackles. Nothing was ever going to compare to the jubilant cheers that greeted Scott McTominay’s addedtime clincher nine months ago - the last Old Trafford game to host matchgoers - or the scenes in the away end when Edin Dzeko made it six in 2011.
The spacious surroundings outside the ground had never felt emptier and the atmosphere inside was the polar opposite from nine months ago.
The fourth of O’Farrell’s pre-Christmas beatings marked his last as the United manager on home turf.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is all but certain to be back in the dugout for Leeds’ first league visit to M16 next Sunday despite an utterly unfulfilling week of Champions League elimination and more profligacy at home.
United have won one of their six home league games, scoring three (two of them penalties) and will be grateful they are away at Sheffield United on Thursday.
The statistics cla claimed Ederson ha had two attempts on target to field ye yet both were un unmemorable.
Senior figures at United are ad adamant they have re regained their id identity under So Solskjaer but in bo both matches this week they have been risk-aversive and only came alive when they conceded.
Both managers have lamented the reduction of substitutions back down to three from five yet both were peculiarly passive, with Ferran Torres introduced in the 66th minute and Anthony Martial eventually introduced in the 74th.
If a crowd was present there would have been clamours for Phil Foden and Donny van de Beek, yet both managers only made one change apiece.
Solskjaer said on the eve of the derby United had to defend better from the front and concealed in that message was the tactical surprise of Bruno Fernandes doubling as a centre forward in a 4-3-3.
Solskjaer used the same formation, with Jesse Lingard breaking through split strikers, to defeat Tottenham and Arsenal when still the caretaker manager in January 2019 and Fernandes set such an intense tempo Aaron Wan-Bissaka was inside the City third within seconds of an Ederson goalkick, harrying Joao Cancelo.
Harry Maguire was so eager for United to push ‘up’, as though City were
so pedestrian and dominant with the ball they would not counter-attack, yet United were exposed by the elegance of a Kevin de Bruyne lay-off that Riyad Mahrez botched with a nervous finish David de Gea easily repelled.
It was not the only occasion Mahrez lacked bravery and he was the first to be substituted.
Solskjaer will have been encouraged with how United functioned in their new (or old) formation at half-time, though the clear-cut chances were fashioned by City, otherwise tepid and more stimulated following the break.
The United coach Kieran McKenna, conductor of the press, had never sounded so loud inside a sparse stadium United’s balance was not compromised by a cynical foul by De Bruyne on Fred, who is still yet to yield to an injury in twoand-a-half years at United.
Not for the first time, Fernandinho avoided a card for deliberately fouling Fernandes in the first derby in years where there was no mention of ‘tactical foul’ in the build-up. Fred reiterated why he is undroppable in the United midfield even though there are better midfielders in Solskjaer’s squad. He balanced out a midfield quartet that successfully accommodated Pogba and those probing passes that knitted the play
Leipzig.
City lack the imperiousness they oozed on their last win at Old Trafford in January and the complete absence of Sergio Aguero through illness was a fillip for United.
Even with the class of De Bruyne and energy of Raheem Sterling, United’s attack was equal to City’s and Gabriel Jesus squandered the kind of half-volley Aguero, with nine derby goals, has habitually converted.
Jesus for Aguero is like getting Robbie Williams to step in for Mick Jagger for a Rolling Stones concert and whenever City started to resemble their old selves they often collapsed with the support act.
The contest ended with him declining to shoot when through on goal, only to be eventually flagged offside.
It was that dull. together were missed in
United have won one of their six home league games, scoring three - two of them penalties!