MUTV pundit praises two Manchester United attacking players who impressed vs City

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Manchester United struggle for goals or players with any real cutting edge, for a second successive season.

One of the major blights in Erik ten Hag‘s 2023/24 season was the team scoring only 57 goals across the Premier League campaign and ending up with a -1 goal difference.

The follow-up has been even more pathetic, with Erik ten Hag sacked a few months in. Manchester United have scored only 37 Premier League goals, with seven games to go. Mercifully the goal difference is only -4.

It means that after a drab 0-0 Manchester derby, there were few strong performances to shout about, instead just trying to cling to a couple of moments of promise.

Alejandro Garnacho improvement noted

Alejandro Garnacho almost got the game off to a flier when he was scythed down on the edge of the box, with Ruben Dias fortunate not to be sent off.

Garnacho’s directness caused an early problem for City, and this was in contrast to his anonymous performance against Nottingham Forest days earlier.

Speaking on MUTV, former prospect Ben Thornley noted the improvement.

He said: “He was definitely more impactful than he was on Tuesday night by by a long way. And he has that in him to be able to upset defences, to [have] the energy to keep going.”

Head coach Ruben Amorim had warned Garnacho that he needed to improve, and while the Argentine has been up and down all season, this was a case where he at least did not go backwards.

Garnacho won three free-kicks, had two of his shots blocked, and was frequently involved, with 44 touches, winning eight duels

Joshua Zirkzee lively, can’t make breakthrough

Rasmus Hojlund was out of his depth again versus City, and he was taken off for Joshua Zirkzee for the final 20 minutes.

Thornley added that he liked what he saw from Zirkzee, even if it did not materialise into anything.

“I think the one thing that I picked up on towards the end of the game is that Joshua Zirkzee was doing really, really well.

“He did have an impact when he came home as a substitute, as you expect them to do, but he just didn’t have the people alongside him to be able to maybe give him those one or two more options.”

Zirkzee had one shot on target and another shot blocked, and had only four fewer touches as a substitute than Rasmus Hojlund did in 71 minutes.

We have seen improvement from Zirkzee in 2025, who has been used in different roles, but this game was the story of his season; nearly, but not quite.