Manchester United and Manchester City drew 0-0 in a derby that will not live long in the memory.
City, without Erling Haaland for the rest of the domestic season after the ankle injury he sustained in the FA Cup against Bournemouth, looked blunt in attack, while United will be happy to finish with a clean sheet, having conceded 17 in their nine previous league matches at Old Trafford under Ruben Amorim.
The draw keeps City in fifth, a point behind Chelsea in fourth and a point ahead of Aston Villa in sixth, as the race for Champions League qualification hots up with seven games to go. United are 13th with 38 points from 31 games.
Mark Critchley, Sam Lee and Ahmed Walid analyse the key talking points…
What were City trying to do in attack?
In typical Pep Guardiola fashion, City’s line-up on paper did not reflect how they looked on the ball in the Manchester derby.
Omar Marmoush didn’t start as the lone centre-forward because City’s attacking line consisted of the Egypt forward and Phil Foden positioned on either side of Kevin De Bruyne in a narrow front three, with the Belgium international regularly dropping to overload the midfield and find spaces between the lines.
However, Guardiola’s side failed to break down United’s defensive block in the first half. City’s approach in possession focused on trying to find Marmoush, De Bruyne or Foden between the lines to combine, but United’s centre-backs were aware of when to follow their markers or hand them over to their central midfielders Manuel Ugarte or Casemiro.
Another solution that City tried was to find the front three’s runs behind the defence, but Noussair Mazraoui, Harry Maguire and Leny Yoro seamlessly covered for each other.
The dynamics of City’s attack changed in the second half after Guardiola replaced Foden with Jeremy Doku — Marmoush moved towards the right half-space and Doku occasionally roamed towards the left wing, leaving Ilkay Gundogan or Nico O’Reilly to attack the left half-space.
Further changes altered City’s attacking shape into a 2-3-4-1/3-2-4-1, with Jack Grealish and De Bruyne as two ‘No 10s’ (attacking midfielders) behind Marmoush, while Doku and Matheus Nunes maintained the width.
Despite the varying ideas, City failed to break down United’s defence.
Ahmed Walid
Did it get better for Garnacho?
United’s game plan was clear from inside the first minute, when Alejandro Garnacho was sent darting in behind City’s high line and managed to win a free kick on the edge of the penalty area.
The 20-year-old came under the microscope for his wastefulness and questionable decision-making in the defeat to Nottingham Forest, but he is nothing if not a trier, and the danger posed by his pace occasionally troubled City.
But his end product has to improve, and the Argentina international spurned United’s clearest sight of goal when he fumbled what should have been a tap-in from a Diogo Dalot cross, failing to make true connection.
Then, on another break forward not long after, a poorly weighted pass into Bruno Fernandes drew complaints from his captain. They were justified. In the second half, a promising burst ended with a tame shot wide, and the familiar sight of him ignoring Patrick Dorgu’s overlapping run.
A United side short on goals often look even limper in attack when Garnacho is not playing. He is Amorim’s most dynamic attacking threat. But when you have just four goals in 30 league appearances, that’s a problem.
Mark Critchley
United’s compactness comes at a cost
Despite this being a dreadfully stale game, there was one positive from United’s perspective: the result. Actually, make that two with the clean sheet — United’s first at Old Trafford in nine league games.
From that perspective, Amorim will be happy. For all the commentary surrounding his system, it nullified City’s threats effectively and helped United establish a solid foundation.
Whether you call it a back three or a back five, it has generally worked well in match-ups against elite opponents — think the victory at the Etihad, the draw at Anfield, the penalty shootout win at Arsenal with 10 men in the FA Cup, and the creditable draw against Mikel Arteta’s side last month.
That said, United only won one of those games in 90 minutes. And while their discipline and compactness come in sharp contrast to the chaos that could break out under Erik ten Hag, United could use that chaos as a ladder and play enough percentages to sometimes come out on top.
Amorim has given United a stable base to work from in these games but that can come at the expense of attacking cut-through.
Mark Critchley
De Bruyne’s departure makes sense
The fairytale here would have been De Bruyne scoring or assisting the winning goal, and a combination of nostalgia and narrative made that feel distinctly possible.
De Bruyne announced on Friday that he will be leaving City at the end of the season and that kickstarted the debate about his place among the Premier League’s all-time greats, which would be very well-merited for the powerhouse that he has been over the last decade.
But the current reality, unfortunately, is that the moments of magic — goals and assists — have become far harder to replicate over the past couple of months, to the extent where it makes complete sense for him to move on this summer.
He was not especially bad at Old Trafford, particularly considering the poor standard of the game overall, but his attempts to prise the game open came to nothing. Gary Neville said on commentary that one misplaced cross was “really unlike De Bruyne”.
Historically, yes, currently, no.
Sam Lee
Both sides will just be delighted not to lose
It is a good job for either side that they did not lose this; it would have been a disaster to come out of this very poor match with nothing.
A winner could have forgiven the lack of quality otherwise and enjoyed/laughed at the winner, but the loser would have had absolutely nothing to take solace in.
Neither set of fans has had much to shout about this season — even if City are in a better league position — and losing this stinker of a game would have been the latest in a long line of extremely disappointing results.
Instead, we can all go away and reflect, very briefly, on one of the poorest Manchester derbies in recent memory. It is a reminder that sometimes an unpredictable game between two inconsistent teams does not always guarantee entertainment.
Sam Lee
What did Ruben Amorim say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What did Pep Guardiola say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for United?
Thursday, April 10: Lyon (away), Europa League quarter-final first leg, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
What next for City?
Saturday, April 12: Crystal Palace (home), Premier League, 12.30pm UK, 7.30am ET
Recommended reading
(Michael Steele/Getty Images)
