Dominant Blues prove to Ole that bigger’s not always better
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer was right that United are still ‘bigger’ than City.
But after this derby mauling, he was right in the sense that Barry Manilow is bigger than Bob Dylan, or that McDonald’s has more customers than a Michelin-starred restaurant.
The notion that the Blues could do what Liverpool did, and storm the gates of Old Trafford with four first-half goals and rack up an embarrassing score, was being roundly dismissed by Pep Guardiola before the game.
He was right in terms of the goals – City managed an Eric Bailly own-goal and a cheeky Bernardo Silva strike to go in with a lead that was comfortable, but not decisive.
Make no mistake, this match was every bit as one-sided as the 5-0 result Liverpool pulled off at Old Trafford.
The fact is that, but for a world-class display by David De Gea, the margin could have been even bigger than that enjoyed by Jurgen Klopp’s men.
If it was a boxing match, the referee might have stepped in to end the cruelty in a first half that was as one-sided as any derby you will see. United retained a puncher’s chance, by teeing up shots for their knockout specialist Cristiano Ronaldo, but Ederson parried them with no real sweat.
The 6-1 has passed into folklore, but the opening 45 minutes were not as dominant or emphatic as this – United simply had no answer to the swarming, incessant waves of City pressing, led by the all-action Bernardo Silva. Before the game, Liverpool legend Graeme Souness described the little Portugal international as ‘an absolute dream of a player’ – for United, he was an absolute nightmare.
The two goals in that opening 45 minutes were scrappy affairs, both created by Joao Cancelo, who has become the Blues’ prime playmaker from left-back. He overlapped down the left to swing in a dangerous cross which Eric Bailly, panicked into doing something, anything, sliced past De Gea to hand City the lead.
The Blues sought to press home their advantage against the bedraggled Reds, and only De Gea stood between them and a massacre.
The Cancelo-Phil Foden combination began to expose Aaron Wan-Bissaka down the left, and when the Stockport lad raced clear and pulled back for De Bruyne, his shot cannoned into the legs of a defender. It fell for Gabriel Jesus, who had to reach backwards for the shot,
Make no mistake, this match was every bit as one-sided as the 5-0 result Liverpool pulled off at Old Trafford Stuart Brennan
but still fired it hard and accurate, only to see De Gea somehow turn it over the bar.
From the resulting corner, the ball was worked to the lurking Cancelo, 20 yards out, and his shot was arrowing into the top corner until the keeper came up with another big save.
Then Foden darted past Wan-Bissaka and De Gea came up with another fine stop from Lindelof’s panicked attempt to cut it out, before De Bruyne had the keeper at full stretch with an angled shot heading for the far corner.
The contest was appallingly one-sided, and the City fans were enjoying themselves with choruses of ‘Ole’s at the Wheel’ in one corner of the ground.
The narrative surrounding City’s superiority for the last eight years has been around the money they have spent, which is undeniable.
But in this, the most expensive derby in history, the two squads were not so far apart – the Blues cost £898m to put together, and United £837m.
The gap between them was far bigger than £61million-worth.
The Reds had also enjoyed three wins and a draw in the previous four league encounters, seen by some as a measure that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had the measure of Guardiola as a coach.
This game dispelled any such notion. United set up with three centre-backs, on the basis that it had worked against Tottenham. But they were marking thin air against the Blues, as Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan drifted into central positions and then out again, will o’the wisps in the Manchester drizzle.
Three centre-backs against no nines, or even false nines, just players who came and went, impossible to pin down.
It was even bewildering in the press box, where those who like to lay out formations could make no sense or structure to what City were doing. Was it 4-33, or 4-4-2, or what? Manuel Pellegrini used to dismiss such pigeonholing as “telephone numbers” and this City team have added another layer of meaninglessness to that. Pep and his players didn’t care – it was simply working.
The Blues could afford to cruise through the second half, making chances at will, but unable to drive home the full extent of their superiority.
It didn’t matter to the delighted, drenched Blues, who celebrated a fine derby victory with an impromptu Poznan.