It's not been the start to the season Erik Ten Hag wanted.
After the derby between Manchester City and Manchester United, it only highlighted the gulf between the sides both on and off the pitch.
After the derby between Manchester City and Manchester United, it only highlighted the gulf between the sides both on and off the pitch.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Hello guys, Adam here from 442. Now I know what you're thinking, this isn't Adam, the
00:10 Adam that I'm used to. Correct, this is a different Adam. There is now two Adams on
00:14 the team and I need to stop saying Adam. We've got Adam Cleary, who is currently in New York
00:18 and Tokyo having a lovely time away, and me, Adam Monk. I am the new presenter who will
00:23 be working with Adam Cleary. Unfortunately, I am also a Manchester City fan. I am also
00:28 in a little bit of a makeshift set up today. I'm in my bedroom, but we've got a snazzy
00:32 new studio coming along shortly, so we'll be there. But today, a makeshift one, much
00:36 like Manchester United's back four this weekend. So let's talk about that. So where did it
00:42 all go wrong? Well, let's look at the glaring errors. Now I'm going to show you a picture
00:45 now of me the last time Johnny Evans played in a Manchester derby. Okay, now that tells
00:51 a story in of itself. I was 11 back then and it was in the sixth one that Johnny Evans
00:57 last played in. I was in a Butlin's watching the game with my United fan friends and I
01:02 was in year eight. So the fact that he's now playing against a 22 year old Erling Haaland,
01:06 I feel a bit sorry for him, truth be told. It's not fair. So what else was wrong with
01:10 the line up? Well, you might have noticed that Scott McTominay played in the 10 position.
01:14 Now it's felt a little bit like Scott McTominay has almost just been shoehorned into any role
01:19 that he can sort of adapt to somewhat throughout his whole Manchester United career. You may
01:23 or may not know that Scott McTominay used to be a striker in the academy, very two footed,
01:28 very good ball striker, very good finisher. And that's why he's got three goals this season.
01:32 But playing him in a 10 automatically shoehorns Manchester United's best player Bruno Fernandes
01:37 out wide. Another problem with United playing the system they did and McTominay in that
01:41 10 is it disrupted Manchester United's collective press. Now I don't have a tactics board with
01:46 me right now, but I can get an artificial one up. McTominay by nature is very haphazardous
01:51 player. You could see that with Fred. That's why he took a lot of stick at times for being
01:55 leaky at the back because he was always caught out of position, maybe played off the adrenaline
01:59 of a game too much and sort of went off his own accord at times, chasing the ball like
02:03 a lap dog. When you mix that pressing from the front with Bruno Fernandes, who would
02:06 also want to do it, and then Rashford, who's utilised as the outlet on the counter attack
02:10 on the left, it's just disjointed and made it so easy for Manchester City to pass through
02:15 all game. So when did this cost United? Well, the perfect example would be the second goal.
02:20 Now I'm going to show you a few pictures here. You can see that Edison has the ball and there's
02:24 a collective press from Manchester United's front four, but to no avail because they're
02:28 not tight to any markers and you've got the most technical defensive players in the world
02:32 on the ball. So it's like a hot knife going through butter when they pick out a player
02:36 in the middle of the pitch who's completely unmarked. This then has already created a
02:40 disconnect between Eriksen and Amrabat and the front four in itself. So when City did
02:44 beat Manchester United's man for man press they had all the time in the world on the
02:47 ball in the middle of the pitch. To beat United's midfield press and then pick out Grealish
02:52 and Bernardo on the left hand side and effectively have a 2v1 against Balo every time they wanted.
02:57 Another problem on top of this was the defence of United were pinned back because they couldn't
03:01 leave Haaland and Alvarez alone. Which they did anyway.
03:05 So let's have a little bit of balance. How good were Manchester City? Well, the answer
03:09 is as good as they usually are, but a few players were particularly impressive this
03:13 game and one of them is Jon Stones. So Jonny Stones, how has he evolved as a footballer?
03:19 Well, playing in midfield is a good starting point and one that I'm sure not a lot of people
03:23 really expected. We knew he was good on the ball, a lot of City fans did, but the fact
03:27 that he's so comfortable in that six role, so press resistant. It's like he's playing
03:32 FIFA on semi-pro or something. It is ridiculous. But this game in particular, he was actually
03:36 operating in that sort of, I suppose you could say the eight role, but that KDB, Kevin De
03:41 Bruyne, a sort of half space. We've seen Trent operating there, but Jon Stones really was
03:46 doing that a lot this game. As you can see by the pictures provided here, he was marauding
03:50 with the ball. I think that's probably the right word to use. Marauding forward, dragging
03:53 Man United midfielders out of position, you know, just wreaking havoc really from top
03:58 to bottom of the pitch. However, there is one player that facilitates
04:02 Stones in this system to be able to do that role and it is of course, Kyle Walker. So
04:07 of course I don't have the tactics board with me right now, but I've got an artificial one
04:10 here which should suffice. Now you can see Kyle Walker is a default right back in the
04:15 system on paper, but what he does when Stones marauds forward is he sort of plays this hybridised
04:20 right centre back, right back role. And the only reason he can do it is because his physical
04:24 attributes are so good. So if we do lose the ball and there's a turnover of possession,
04:28 he's got enough recovery pace to deal one on one with Rashford and also to deal with
04:32 any long balls that may have gone in the channels behind, which he did all game.
04:36 Now as good as Manchester City are, this is a thing that will have to change when Kyle
04:40 Walker's either his legs go or he does leave the club because you physically cannot play
04:44 this system without him doing that role. It is true that City are very quick defenders,
04:48 particularly with Josco Gvardiol recently joining who's not slow himself, but Kyle Walker
04:53 is borderline an Olympian, put it that way. He's so quick on the ball with his recovery
04:58 pace that it actually almost allows John Stones to be an extra man, both in defence, midfield
05:03 and sometimes attack. So it's like sometimes it's almost like you're playing against 12
05:07 men, let alone 11. But listen, it's nice to be able to say that about City for once because
05:11 we're all used to Man United being the team with 12 men at Old Trafford in the past, aren't
05:15 we? That's called satire. And look, no matter what you think about that penalty that was
05:19 given City, you know, me personally, I think it was contentious. I think it smacked of
05:24 inconsistency because you see that incident three or four times every Premier League game
05:27 and most of the time it'll just get waved away by some fella in the VAR just, you know,
05:33 maybe watching this video or something that, you know, anything. He could be doing anything,
05:37 but he's not watching the game. But bottom line, that was Manchester City's first penalty
05:41 at Old Trafford since 1992. So we were due one. Anyway, enough of that. We would have
05:46 won the game anyway. There was one more player who was absolutely imperious and has been
05:51 for three or four years now in Manchester City colours and that man was Rodri. So let's bear
05:55 in mind this man is a number six. His first job, first and foremost, is to be press resistant
06:00 and break up play. He does that in abundance and he's got to the point now where he's contributing
06:04 tenfold consistently at the other end of the pitch. The fact that City have lost their
06:08 two games this season without him paints a picture in itself, but you have to ask the
06:12 question how is he doing? What he is doing on a football pitch? Well, of course, you've
06:16 got Bernardo Silva and John Stones who are great space finders and supplements for Rodri
06:20 to allow him to push higher up the pitch with little risk of there being a possession turnover.
06:24 But with that said, the volume of what he is doing on a football pitch is just preposterous.
06:29 So let's go through it. Firstly, there was the pass to Kyle Walker at nil. They're looped
06:33 over the back line, headed back to Foden. That was saved by Onana and Haaland should
06:37 have finished that chance, but Rodri ultimately created it. Then he won the penalty. Now,
06:41 whatever you think about that, you can leave a comment down below. But listen, he won it
06:45 at the end of the day. It was him who drew the foul. So that's another attacking contribution
06:48 right there. And then the ball over to Alvarez for the second goal, which was again creating
06:53 from deep time and space on the ball, having time to pick out the pass and executing it
06:57 to perfection. And then he also created the third by marauding forward and clarting. Peter
07:02 Dror used the word clarting, which I didn't think was in his lexicon or was very Shakespearean,
07:06 but he clarted the ball at Onana, which was rebounded to Erling Haaland, who then squared
07:11 it to Phil Foden. So he also somewhat created the third goal as well. So that now leaves
07:15 Rodri as the player who has created the most big chances for Manchester City this season
07:20 so far now with 10 games in. And he's done that from six. So all I'm saying is that award
07:25 ceremony that's going on at the moment called the Ballon d'Or, you might be talking about
07:29 the wrong guys to win it. With all that said, after a scoreline like that and two performances
07:34 that were so contrasting from City and United in a game like that, it does beg the question,
07:38 what is the gulf between Manchester City and Manchester United? Well, if you look at Manchester
07:43 City, you've got the CFA, you've got Pep Guardiola, you've got the same integration of style throughout
07:49 the under 12s to the first team. You've got players just being replaced in the first team
07:53 and fitting like a glove seamlessly. They're all on the same page. Whereas at Manchester
07:57 United, they can't really read, to be honest with you. Where do you even start with them?
08:03 There's no one answer as to what is the biggest problem at Manchester United. People point
08:08 towards the ownership. People would always look at the management because he's the one
08:11 who gets the players playing a certain way. But for me, I'd probably say one of the biggest
08:14 things looking at the team yesterday was the wage structure that's at the club and years
08:20 of mismanagement really dating back to Ed Woodward. Because you look at their inability
08:25 to shift Ed Wood, let's say the likes of McTominay, Martial, Maguire on big, big wage packets
08:31 there and then in a position they have the leverage to be able to veto any move away
08:35 because they want to sit tight on the 200 grand a week, which I suppose is fair enough.
08:40 And another way of looking at it is this. You look at the back line from yesterday,
08:43 you've got Dallo and Lindelof at fullback who were both signed by Jose Mourinho. You've
08:47 got Harry Maguire at centre back who was signed by Oli Gunnar Solskjaer and then Johnny Evans
08:50 in there who is effectively just a stopgap for the time being, but is 35 years old. Nonetheless,
08:56 bottom line, that is not a back four that can really be challenging for trophies. Definitely
09:01 not trophies, but maybe not top four either. I know a lot of United fans myself and saw
09:05 some on Twitter who were looking at that line up before the game and almost felt like they'd
09:09 been beat before a ball had even been kicked. And that's not even just against Manchester
09:12 City. You have the Brighton game as well, who are obviously a very good side and they
09:15 felt like they were going to get turned over by them too by just looking at the team sheet.
09:19 And that translates onto the pitch as well, ultimately, doesn't it? It feels like the
09:22 United players are going out at the moment knowing that they're going to see none of
09:26 the ball and not really know what to do with it when they do get the ball. So do you look
09:30 towards mismanagement from the board above and the Glazers and Woodward in the past,
09:34 or do you look at the coach who's implementing those styles on the pitch? Well, that's for
09:38 you to answer in the comments. Anyway, that is me done for my first video. Make sure you
09:43 do subscribe. We like to see that number rising. Pretty nice first video for me talking about
09:48 why Manchester City are good and Manchester United are bad. Nice and easy for me to do.
09:53 Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video. As I said, the setup will be a little bit better
09:57 next time. Well, not next time, but in the near future. You know what I mean? When we're
10:00 moving to the studio, because I am literally just in my bedroom right now. But with that
10:04 said, hope you enjoyed the video. Make sure you subscribe and I'll see you soon. Bye bye.