THE WORLD HAS CHANGED completely since the last Manchester derby. The problem for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Pep Guardiola is that their teams haven’t. Not really. What seems like a lifetime ago, back in March, the old rivals played their last league game before the pandemic intervened. Old Trafford was rocking after two Ederson errors […]
THE WORLD HAS CHANGED completely since the last Manchester derby.
The problem for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Pep Guardiola is that their teams haven’t. Not really.
What seems like a lifetime ago, back in March, the old rivals played their last league game before the pandemic intervened.
Old Trafford was rocking after two Ederson errors allowed Solskjaer’s team to convert 27 per cent possession into a 2-0 win and so complete a double over their neighbours.
This time a curiously passionless game with no crowd ended goalless after a poor second half because United and City are still facing the same problems they were before the first lockdown.
United remain a team without identity, a shadow of the sides that once romped to titles with attacking, skilful football.
And City are still searching for the answer to the question of what to do when Sergio Aguero isn’t there to turn their lovely approach play into goals.
After a week in which United slipped out of the Champions League with a whimper, Solskjaer will be the happier manager.
He certainly should be on the balance of the game, in which City had the better chances and his own team’s most likely source of a goal seemed to be set-pieces.
But in the longer term, United and Solskjaer should be the more worried.
They still can’t find a consistent level of performance, still don’t seem to have a defined style of play and those two problems are undoubtedly related to the manager’s regular changes of personnel and shape.
And at the centre of it all, even when playing on the left as he was, is Paul Pogba and United’s inability to bring the best out of him – or his inability or reluctance to give it.
Solskjaer’s post-match interview in Leipzig had made him sound like a man under pressure.
In one breath he said United could not afford to feel sorry for themselves, with the next he said they should for a little while.
When asked about Pogba minutes before kick off in the derby, the Norwegian came up with another gem. “You cannot stop good players from playing well,” he said, apparently ignoring the fact that, in the Frenchman’s case, that was exactly what had been happening – even if the main culprit was Pogba himself.
But in deciding to match City’s 4-2-3-1 formation and put Pogba in a left-sided role, Solskjaer was running the risk of not making the most of the enigmatic midfielder’s talents.
The World Cup winner had his moments, but that’s all they were, moments. Flashes of the player he can be, rather than a dazzling, sustained light show of his talent.
But the first chance fell to United and Pogba was at least indirectly involved in creating it. A lovely pass found Fernandes, whose attempted cross was blocked, and from the resulting Luke Shaw corner, Scott McTominay narrowly failed to reach Victor Lindelof’s flick on.
City were the more menacing team, though.
With one notable exception, Guardiola was able to field what is probably his strongest 11 after making eight changes from the side that had eased to victory over Marseille.
Unfortunately, the exception was Aguero, whose ruthlessness in front of goal has been so sorely missed by City for much of this year.
Last night it was a bout of gastroenteritis, rather than his knee problems, that kept the Argentinian out, and how Guardiola would have loved him to be there when his side gave United some squeaky-bum moments in the first half.
After Maguire blocked a Raheem Sterling shot, Aguero’s stand-in Gabriel Jesus half-volleyed well over the bar from Riyad Mahrez’s pass.
It was a tough opportunity on the run, perhaps a half-chance at best, but just the sort of opening that you’d fancy a fit and firing Aguero to convert.
Stones was then unable to put enough on his header from a Mahrez free kick, but the Algerian himself was guilty of fluffing the best chance of the opening 45 minutes.
Jesus and De Bruyne combined wonderfully on the break to tee up the winger, but his shot was poor, De Gea saved and De Bruyne sent the follow-up well over the crossbar.
United began the second half at a decent lick and thought they had a penalty, before VAR showed that Rashford had been offside from Fernandes’ pass, rendering Walker’s foul irrelevant.
The England striker might have done better than fire a shot wide when he ran on to a Pogba pass and there was precious little else to enjoy as the game fell flat for a while.
Guardiola had seen enough and his introduction of Ferran Torres injected new energy into his side. It took another Maguire block to stop De Bruyne scoring from Jesus’ cut-back.
Solskjaer made his own changes, but to no avail.
Rodri’s tame stoppage-time shot summed up a curious evening.
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