Shambolic Manchester United are nowhere near closing gap on City
Football is an increasingly complicated game, all half-spaces and passing lanes, pressing patterns and probabilities, but some aspects remain very simple. Such as, if you’re playing against the most prolific elite-level striker in the world, you don’t give him a free header at the back post. And if you’ve got away with doing that just before half-time, you certainly don’t give him an even easier chance just after the break.
Manchester United can protest about a soft penalty and they can ponder what might have happened had Rasmus Højlund or Scott McTominay taken one of the chances that fell their way in the first half, but what should disappoint them is that against an unusually sloppy Manchester City they lost because they were even sloppier. That’s 34 Premier League defeats now at Old Trafford in the 10 years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, the same number as they endured in more than two decades under him.
It was four minutes into first-half injury time that Bernardo Silva found space down the City left and floated a ball across for Erling Haaland. Perhaps it wasn’t quite a free header given that Victor Lindelöf was in the vicinity, but it may as well have been for all the difference he made. André Onana, flying heroically across his goal, was fortunate that Haaland’s header coincided with his trajectory and he could beat it away.
The lesson was there, but it was ignored. Four minutes after the break, Silva was again left weirdly untended. Again he floated the ball to the back post, but this time Lindelöf had been drawn away tracking Phil Foden. Rodri had taken Jonny Evans under the ball and, as a result, Haaland had nobody within five yards of him.
It’s not the first time this season United have conceded a goal that just looks weird, but this was even more inexplicable than Mauro Icardi’s winner for Galatasaray. Perhaps in the final minutes, when the game becomes stretched, it’s possible that a player could find that much space, but Haaland, just after half-time, 10 yards from goal? Something is very wrong with United’s defensive structure.
When United beat City at Old Trafford in January, the sense was that something was growing under Erik ten Hag, that the sands had shifted sufficiently that City would at least have to fight for supremacy. Nine months on, United are a shambles. Three successive wins had perhaps given an impression of resilience, but the truth is that if you’re a big-six side needing late heroics to see off Brentford, Sheffield United and Copenhagen, you’re not really in a position to challenge this City side. A win would have brought United to within three points; as it is, the gap is nine and growing.
And yet the opportunity was there. City have not been quite at their best this season. They lost the ball in dangerous areas in the first half and threatened at times to be undone by rudimentary humps forward. Haaland, for all that he scored twice, for all that he has scored 11 times in the league this season, has the air of a frustrated man. This wasn’t like City’s 2-0 win at Old Trafford two seasons ago, when they outclassed United from the off. With slightly more ruthlessness, slightly more control, slightly more quality, United might have put them under pressure. But they did not, and in the second half City were as excellent as United were dismal.
It’s become a familiar criticism that United’s squad lacks coherence, and for a time that could be explained by the fact that it had been put together by multiple managers. The worry now must be that those signed by Ten Hag are making so little impact. Højlund buzzed around willingly enough, but he is just 20 and has still not scored a Premier League goal. Antony didn’t get on until the 86th minute and his only notable contribution was a petulant swipe at Jérémy Doku. Christian Eriksen couldn’t handle Silva in the first half and then let Rodri drift by him far too easily in the buildup to City’s third goal. Sofyan Amrabat, removed at half-time, looked what he is: another stopgap signing brought in to plug a gap. Mason Mount, brought on at the break, touched the ball just 14 times and never with any sense of menace.
Evans is 35.
By the end, United’s discipline had left them. It wasn’t just Antony nibbling spitefully at opponents, but it said everything about United’s ineffectiveness that when Bruno Fernandes arrived late into a challenge on John Stones, it was he who ended up requiring treatment for an ankle injury.
Organisation has gone, morale is going, and whatever optimism the third-place finish last season generated has almost expired. Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s investment, as and when a deal is finally agreed, holds out some hope, but sorting out football operations will be a lengthy and complex operation. United are fortunate that in this era wealth provides a safety net, because at the moment they have nothing else going for them. City didn’t have to be anywhere near their best to inflict a comprehensive defeat.