Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has detailed where exactly Manchester United went wrong during their 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.
Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United have suffered five defeats in their opening 10 Premier League games and are languishing in 8th.
Pep Guardiola’s side dominated the second half after a rather even first half and probably should have won the game more but thanks to a resurgent Andre Onana, who the City boss was full of praise for, it stayed at three.
Arsene Wenger spoke to the Daily Mail about the result and it seems the Frenchman identified one aspect of the game that meant United struggled.
Wenger on United’s struggles
“I believe where Man United suffers a lot, first of all, is about the quality, the individual quality of the players,” he said.
“And I felt today they were very poor to build the game up from the back.
“They gave the ball so many times to the goalkeeper when they had possibilities to play forward. I would stay it started there.
“Then you make the whole team uncertain and lack confidence because when you feel the fear is behind, they do not want the ball.”
The Red Devils, similar to the first half of the Arsenal defeat, had a lot of possession in their own half without any penetrating passes to cause City problems.
Onana completed 32 passes in the game, Bruno Fernandes, for context, completed just 25, it was a poor display from the Red Devils.
City’s dominance
It was a sorry state of affairs at Old Trafford when the home fans, who have been so supportive of Ten Hag, began leaving with 10 minutes to go.
City truly dominated and barely got out of second gear during a rampant second half and this will surely be the big concern for Ten Hag.
City are a superb side and can beat anyone but it’s not often they beat one of their big rivals with such consummate ease, improvements are desperately needed.
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