Despite obviously much better results in recent years at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola’s team have not always managed to easily beat Manchester United, more affected by the crisis. This season, the Devils began to climb to the highest places in the Premier League, and the final faith in the revival of Manchester United can instill a 2-1 victory over City, which reduced the gap between them in the Premier League to one. Premier League standings. point. Pep’s tactical errors, City’s self-confidence, refereeing errors and other issues from the last game will be left for other material, but in this one we are going to talk about surprising tactical facts that require more attention.
Expected number of goals: 1.98 vs 0.74
The match score definitely cannot be called random, but rather fits the definition of “fair”. Manchester City scored just 0.74 xG, which was their worst result since the October game with Leicester, but unlike the Manchester United game, it was a 1-0 win then.
City shot just 3 times from outside the box, while Manchester United had 6 similar shots. United attacked more often, better and were able to take better advantage of their chances.
Photo source: Manchester City FC
Haaland touched the ball only 19 times
One of the main achievements of Erik ten Hag’s team can be considered the complete destruction of Erling Haaland, who touched the ball only 19 times in 90 minutes. He is by no means the type of striker who needs to be heavily involved in the ball game to score goals, but thanks to the Devils’ well-functioning center back and support zone, the Norwegian striker ran to the back. the whole party empty. 19 touches is the smallest result among all those who played a complete game.
Rashford is the best player in the world (after the 2022 World Cup)
Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford hasn’t done very well in previous derbies against City, but it was his goal that won them in the last game. It can be seen that the winter break associated with the 2022 World Cup did him good, because after that, the Englishman scored 8 goals and provided 2 assists, which is the best result among all the players in the top 5 European championships.
Photo source: IMAGO
But in fairness, it must be said that even before the Qatar tournament, his performance did not raise doubts. After scoring against Ederson, he extended his streak at Old Trafford to nine games.
Manchester United winning streak
Rashford’s performance cannot fail to delight United fans, but they are even more pleased with the team’s winning streak, which now stands at 9 games (in all competitions). And this is the longest winning streak since the departure of Alex Ferguson, that is, in almost 10 years.
Manchester – red
In the first round match, the townspeople in their stadium did not give United a chance, having won a crushing victory with a score of 6:3, but a lot has changed since then. Manchester United have since scored 26 points in 11 games, seven more than Pep Guardiola’s side. I undertake to declare that for the moment Manchester is red.
