THE MANCHESTER DERBY has become one of the most important fixtures in the English football schedule.
After years of underachievement and time spent in the lower leagues the takeover of Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour has seen City establish themselves as one of the top teams in the Premier League.
This led to a return to prominence for the Manchester derby as Manchester United look to return to their position as perennial title favourites.
This coming weekend sees the latest instalment of the Manchester Derby.
Recent results picked up by Man Utd have papered over the cracks and we would expect to see City dominate the match both in terms of possession and chance creation.
Indeed, the pressure is mounting on Erik ten Hag as even when they do win a match the style of football is not up to the standards that are expected by Red Devils fans.
One of the most glaring issues for Man Utd so far this season is the lack of connection between the units of the team.
The defensive line is trying to sit in a deep position, probably as a result of the lack of pace in the defensive line, while the attacking line stays high.
This then means that there is a huge amount of space the Man Utd midfield have to cover to prevent the opposition dominating the centre.
This was an even greater issue earlier in the season with the Man Utd midfield tended to be made up of Christian Eriksen, Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes due to a lack of legs and contrasting preferences in pitch position.
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The introduction of academy product Kobbie Mainoo has fixed these issues to an extent.
However, the lack of support around Mainoo in the midfield means the youngster is left trying to solve all of the issues on his own.
The fact this has been one of the biggest issues we have seen from Man Utd since the opening stages of this season and it still has not been fixed is a glaring failing from Ten Hag and his coaching team.
The issue will be even worse against a team like Man City who have players in their squad who specialise in dropping into gaps and spaces between the lines to receive the ball in the opposition half.
The feeling is the Red Devils are likely to continue in this match with a midfield that has Casemiro and Mainoo at the base.
Ideally, Casemiro would sit deep with Mainoo as the more mobile player with the capacity to move box to box and link the play. But the issue will still be in transition.
In these moments Fernandes would need to come into an established defensive position with their wide attackers tucked inside to make a more solid and protected defence.
Poor recruitment and squad building has left Ten Hag without enough midfield players who can help to control the game and cover these spaces that are left by the defensive line sitting deep.
This is certainly not a problem that we will see from Manchester City.
The issues Man Utd have in terms of covering space in their own half mean they have one of the worst records in the league in terms of the amount of shots and chances that they are conceding.
Conceding the volume of shots they are at the moment is bad enough against the weaker teams towards the bottom of the table, but conceding a lot shots to this Man City team could prove catastrophic.
While Man Utd will leave spaces in the midfield in moments of transition, Guardiola’s side are one of the best teams in the Premier League who have the players to best take advantage of these possibilities.
Players like Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne in particular thrive when they are left in pockets of space around the final third where they can receive the ball and play on the half-turn.
Thanks to a player like Rodri sitting in defensive midfield, the other two central midfielders can be released into more advanced positions to get on the ball in the opposition half.
City’s possession based style means there are plenty of chances for them to play into the final third and the channels to find the likes of Foden and De Bruyne in pockets of space.
When their creative attacking players are able to get on the ball in these pockets we typically see opposition defenders dragged out of position to cover these passes.
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This then, in turn, gives City space elsewhere to exploit.
The problem they will give the Man Utd defence will be in choosing whether to leave these players in space or have their defenders jump out to try to engage the player receiving the ball.
Either one comes with significant risk.
If Man Utd cannot find a way to cover the threat from these spaces then they are in for a very long 90 minutes, especially with the threat of Erling Haaland leading the City line ahead of the midfield.
The narrative this season is Haaland is having a relatively poor season for Man City. But 27 goals in 30 games stands in contrast to this.
His threat and unique profile as a striker mean Man Utd will have to be spend time trying to find a way to counter the Norwegian’s threat.
Haaland has the physical profile of a target man forward with the speed of a forward who wants to play on the shoulder of the last defender.
This will force the central defenders of Man Utd further back towards their own goal, with the lack of pace of Varane and Maguire meaning they will want to leave as little space for Haaland to attack as possible.
The presence of Haaland is another factor Ten Hag and his coaching staff have to consider when planning how to deal with the threat of the positioning of the City midfielders.
If the defenders jump out to deal with the City midfield as they then Haaland will be left in space to attack.
If they stay deep then De Bruyne and Co have space to turn and attack the penalty area.
Haaland’s movement and pace when working across the defensive line can be extremely dangerous and even more so against the Red Devils defenders who are lacking in effective pace.
There are so many variables to the way that City can hurt you that a team who struggles in general against pace, like Man Utd do, will be facing a very difficult 90 minutes.
Derby matches are notoriously hard to predict as the atmosphere around the stadium, and the City in general, will have an effect on the players.
With that said, however, the Man Utd squad looks as though it is going to be stretched to the limit to deal with the threats posed by City.
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