The inquest into Manchester United’s 6-3 defeat to Manchester City over the weekend has been ugly, and rightly so. Erik ten Hag’s men were outclassed on the day.
Speaking after the game, Ten Hag admitted that he was surprised by United’s capitulation, putting the defeat down to a lack of self-belief.
Diogo Dalot was another figure who was heavily criticised for his performance in the derby but the Portugal international has insisted that Ten Hag’s public criticism does not hurt the squad.
Lisandro Martinez has escaped critique lately, however, and that’s most likely down to his stellar form since signing from Ajax in July.
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The 24-year-old has emerged as one of United’s most important players and an early mistake aside, he has hardly put a foot wrong this season.
Now, there are, however, reports that Pep Guardiola targeted Martinez in his pre-match strategy for the derby. That’s according to ESPN, who say that Guardiola’s plan had nothing to do with the defender’s height.
As per the report, City’s plan was to preoccupy Martinez by putting Erling Haaland on him, allowing Phil Foden to run into the subsequent space created by that.
The City manager was reportedly convinced that both of United’s centre-backs would push up on Haaland, leaving space for other players to exploit.
SN’s verdict…
If the reports are to be believed, you can’t knock the plan as both players ended up scoring hat-tricks. We can, however, say that it looks like defenders are already showing Haaland too much respect and perhaps United fell victim to that.
Nevertheless, United would most likely have lost that game regardless of whether Guardiola’s ‘masterplan’ was executed well or not.
In truth, United played against a team seven years into their project. Ten Hag is seven games into his.
