How 10-Man Manchester City Outsmarted Man United
Manchester City beat Man United in the derby this weekend, but not without controversy. From Phil Foden's red card to Erling Haaland's 'offside goal' plus Ezno Maresca's tactics, Jacob Horsfall returns to bring you all the talking points from the Premier League's biggest match this weekend! manchesterunited premierleague erlinghaaland Buy the latest FourFourTwo magazine here ➡️ https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/FourFourTwo/author/B0GSRRXJWK?ref=srnttsrchlnk1&qid=1786984945&sr=8-1&shoppingPortalEnabled=true ⚽ FourFourTwo - At the heart of football since 1994 - in print - online - on video ⚽ 📰 SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/3ErE4ai 💻 WEBSITE: https://bit.ly/3GFXMC0 Follow FourFourTwo on: Twitter/X: https://x.com/FourFourTwo?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fourfourtwouk/?hl=en TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fourfourtwoofficial Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FourFourTwo/?locale=enGB 📥 Sign up below for 𝗘𝗫𝗧𝗥𝗔-𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 @FourFourTwo's FREE weekday newsletter 🤝: Transfers 🛒: Deals 🎥: Videos 💡: Quizzes ✍️: Opinion ➕: 𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙀 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 👇 https://t.co/Yn3AQUt7b6
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The first Manchester derby to see a red card in the last 10 years is all over. But that's not the only thing that happened. Harland scored a pretty questionable goal. Enzel Moresca outthought Michael Carrick and Ilimman and Jai changed the game entirely. So settle down because this is a big one and a game with a lot of things that we need to cover. And obviously I'm Jacob 442's resident tactician and this is how 10 men stunt their noisy neighbors. To start the game off, we saw Manchester United in a relatively passive 442. Their two forward players weren't looking to actively engage with the Man City center halves every single time. And City were in a 3-1 shape. Anderson is basically a lone pivot with Fernandez and Shery peeling into the channels looking to pull one of those central Manchester United midfielders with them and opening up that angle to find Erland Harland who would be coming to feed going in beyond trying to get on the ball. But City were really really passive to start the game. There were so many square passes. Gary Neville spoke about it a lot on the Sky Sports commentary and they just weren't penetrating and Man United block that wasn't the best organized. In fact, Erin Harland really struggled in the first 30 minutes. He didn't touch the ball which I think sums up the first 2530 minutes from Manchester City. They were passive. They weren't finding their best players in the best zones. Sheri Harland were all struggling to get properly involved in this game. Whereas I think Manchester United who before the red card I think were probably the better side. You see here, Mate's Kuna dropping into that box whilst Bruno goes the other way, opening up the diagonal switch and opening space behind Kuna so he can receive the ball and then drive at the Man City defense, which again is kind of how Man United were looking to hurt this Man City team. They were kind of leaving it so the defenders would have to step out of their block to engage with ball carrying players. And to be fair, when you've got players like Kobe Minu, you've got players like Matias Ka in that central area, using your ball carrying abilities makes a lot of sense, but it all changed about halfway through first half. >> The first Manchester City player sent off in the derby. >> This moment changed everything. And I'm going to settle in here because I don't think it's as simple as it potentially looks on first glance where first thing we see is Phil Foden makes contact with Bruno Fernandez. Clear red card. Clear as day. You can't kick out when you're on the floor in that manner. Both legs up. Gone for his chest. It's a red card. Okay. But if we rewind before Folding's kick, the key moment is Bruno Fernandez initiates it. Bruno Fernandez is the one at fault for the whole action. He kicks Phil Fulen on the ground and kicking someone on the ground should be a bookable at the minimum offense. Now for me, I think it's stupid for Fen to react in the way he does. It's careless. It it for someone as seasoned as him, he shouldn't be doing it. But Bruno Fernandez for me, if you're going to send F off, Bruno Fernandez has got to go as well. You cannot let him kick someone on the ground and get away with it. But in the end, it actually turned out working in Man City's favor. and Manchester United fell apart despite obviously being the team with 11 men on the pitch. However, it didn't all just click straight away for City as soon as they went down to 10 men. It wasn't some sort of magic fix. In fact, even after the record, United was still probably the better team up until Halime. And this is probably why here they've got this sort of central midfield overload. Now, the only way City could really handle with this with being down to 10 men was if one of the center halves, probably Ruben Diaz, was to step out of the backline and close that space. But when you're up against Manchester United at Old Trafford, the last thing you want to do is vacate space in beyond because if Diaz steps and Bumo or Rashford or Auno or Bruno go beyond and then someone picks them out and all of a sudden United are in the position that they dream of, which is sort of transitional in beyond the defense moment. Now, Ruben Diaz did step out a few times trying to deal with that, trying to go touch tight to Bruno and Kuna, but in the end, I think for the most part, he did stay in that back four, really, really taking the hit of they could have that overload in front of me, but I'm not going to step out and let them go beyond me because that's obviously so much that's some so much harder to actually deal with. But United still had ways to hurt Man City with City being down to 10 men. We saw them [snorts] constantly look to target this right hand side of the pitch trying to go down there creating overloads combining quickly and buildup before they reach the final third. Now this would mean Shery and Anderson in that midfield would get pulled over alongside Enzo Fernandez as well obviously and then United had Rashford as almost a spare man on the opposite side one v one with Matteas Nunez. if they switched it quickly, he could get on the ball and look to really attack that open space that was left by City having to shuffle over. Now, I thought Nunes did really, really well with Rashford. He handled him really well, but Rashford still registered the most touches in the opposition box out of any player on the pitch in that first half. And that's how United sort of made most of their extra man. Although over then Rashford Fad hitting the post from that free kick and trying to force things to happen, they didn't really cause all that much danger when they needed to because at Halime it all just switched entirely. >> In the second half, City changed their shape to more of a narrow 441 or 423. Instead of the center midfielders going wide, we had them come in really, really deep as a pair with just two players in that central area. Now, Manchester United decided to go man-to-man in this moment, and they did it pretty much throughout the full second half. They went manto man trying to squeeze them in, which makes sense. You're you're at home. You're you're in a derby. City have made mistakes this season at the back Enzo Moresca. They made mistakes in this game at the back under Enzo Moresca and United really had an extra man that they had to go for it. But that left big space beyond the midfield line and in between that midfield line and the Manchester United defense which obviously City didn't have a spare man to flow into that space. But it was something that later down the line caused Manchester United some big big problems because this is where Id man comes into this game and I really do just want to emphasize I thought he was incredible arguably man of the match for me. I know Anderson got it and deserved it, but I think Enjai changed this game from not just a tactical point of view, but from just a player performance level. He was incredible in this game and without him I I don't think City go and get the three points from this game and his biggest impact for me was just how versatile he was. He was on this right wing and Man United were obviously man-to-man against Man City's back line in buildup. But Jai would just come back, get on the ball, and then turn and look to attack the Manchester United space in between the midfield and defense, driving with it, pulling defenders to him, giving Harland room on his defender's shoulder to come to feet or cement your space off of his fullback to go in beyond. And that was how City sort of found solutions if they didn't want to go long, if they weren't going to try and hit Erling Harland. But the real brilliance within Jai, I think, and and the reason he made sense coming on as a 10-man team is because he can do everything. He he's so versatile. Yes, he's a ball to feet winger wants to take his man on. That's him at his foundation. That's his core, but he's also dynamic 1 v one. He's a great ball carrier obviously, but he's also got that tight feet in small conditions. Small conditions, small spaces, and he can do the traditional winger heavyduty running. That is what [music] made the Erling Harland goal. Harland would be coming a little bit deeper when Man City were looking to go long from buildup and that meant that in giant and semen were supposed to get around him and win those second balls and I think this is something maybe slightly different for Harlem compared to his role in the first half. I mean took zero touches in the first 13 minutes and finished the game with 30. And I think his second half really really changed his role. And Moresa made a little tweak to how he wanted to use him cuz he was flicking balls on and then Enjai and Seno showed showed the tenacity to win the second balls and then Enjai especially his intention is to drive at the opposition's defense taking City into a 4v5 on the edge of the Manchester United box with just one Manchester United midfielder in frame here and I believe it's Kobe Mu if my memory serves me right. And then we skip forward a little bit. Some good things happen. It ends up the back post and Harland scores. Now that move just doesn't happen without man and Jai doing what he does and that I am going to get onto the fact that this is a controversial goal. But I just want to emphasize that and Jai's ability to do so much for Man City to do everything to do the little the little things that really matter is what made him such a good substitute appearance for a 10-man size. Now the goal it shouldn't have stood I'll be honest. I mean, I think City deserve the goal based on their second half performance, but Enzo Fernandez impacts the play. When he's making that diving eda, he was in an offside position. He dives toward the ball. Martinez then goes to him. Whether or not Martinez would drop all the way back to Harland, I don't think he does. I think he's probably still in that central area. But look at where Lamens, he can't come all the way across to that back post to stop the near pool shot from Harland because he has to get ready for that header from Enzo Fernandez. And obviously Martinez body position maybe is a little bit different. Maybe he's able to come and close Harland down before he gets that shot off. So, he impacts it. 100% 100% and it shouldn't be allowed to play. But I don't think that that should excuse Manchester United shouldn't let Michael Carrick shouldn't let Manchester United off the hook because that goal was stoppable from their point of view because Manchester United were still going man-to-man high up the pitch well into that second half, well [snorts] around when that goal was happening. Bear in mind, in the second half, Man City went long 25 times. 25 times they tried to play along which is what they were trying to do as a solution in buildup because Manchester United had a numerical equilibrium. They were equal in in that sort of numbers game in in the first phase but Manchester United didn't take note of that. They continued to squeeze high. continue to press, which I understand, but it just felt like stubbornness, naivity to not imagine that City were going to find those solutions with the players that they have. And it leaked into the sort of fowls. We saw again Man City going forward didn't have a numerical advantage. Even in their best chances, they were still probably in underloads. Yet, we still saw Manchester United players diving in and committing senseless fouls, which just allowed City to break the game up and manage the time. In fact, United committed 13 fouls in the second half. Man City committed just three, just three fouls in that second half, whereas United committed 13. And it just feels mental. You're the team with 11 men. You're the team at home. You're the team sort of trying to get back into the game, yet you're just giving Man City a way to kill the clock, to time it down. And it felt like silly game management, especially considering when we compare the squads. You know, this United team have played in derbies before. They've won at Old Trafford in derbies. The the City team, most of them haven't even experienced a derby, never mind won one, but they had the sort of calmness settled down. We've done this before. We've been in these moments before and just killed the game. And United let them do that. In fact, United encouraged them to do that. So, it just felt a little bit dafted. Whereas Marisa, again, full credit to him, full credit to the substitutions, full credit to the changes. He he was alert to the sort of game the game state the situation and that's why Man City got one over their noisy neighbors even though the first half was dull that second half had everything I thought I thought it was a really really good watch just like this video has been. So if you've enjoyed do leave a like and subscribe we've got more content coming next week analysis of everyone. Will Manchester United get going under Carrick this season? They've been struggling. Will Man City really get a run going now with that win against Manchester United because they've not been at their best just yet? Let me know in the comments below and we'll see you all again next week for some more brilliant analysis.