Manchester United suffer the blues

Saturday evening pits together two of the Premier League’s biggest rivals. The Manchester derby is here and with only one point between them in the table, three points are vital.

• Manchester United 4/25
• Draw 3/1 or 4.00
• Manchester City 10/13 or 1.77

Manchester is blue

Both sides had positive domestic weekends and even though Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool are the early title favourites, the Manchester clubs have played one game less and are slowly climbing the table.

Pep Guardiola’s side dispatched Fulham, while Manchester United controversially beat West Ham, but it has to be said form often counts for nothing in local derbies. For Manchester United, it all depends on what mood they wake up in, while City are always consistent. Take United’s first half against West Ham. Gary Neville described it as “woeful” on Sky Sports, and he might have added more adjectives off air. 

If City are presented with that version of United, then United are in for another long evening. Pep’s team are heavy favorites, but United’s weapon is their in-game inconsistency. They are capable of the sublime and the terrible and anything in between, and we often get all shades of red during the 90 minutes. We’re not trying to praise them for being inconsistent, but that would be City’s only main concern. We’ve documented United’s lack of style this season but they’ve somehow climbed up into fifth place and a draw in the Manchester derby seems too vanilla given the hype of this derby. 

Dumped out of Europe

We said last week that Solskajer potentially cost Manchester United a place in the Champions League knockout stages, and in fairness we were spot on. The PSG game cost them, but more strange tactical decisions against RB Leipzig allowed them to go 3-0 down, in a game where a draw would have secured progress. Here’s a summary of the game’s negatives:

Tactical disasters:

• A bizarre line up
• Donny van de Beek omission
• Odd like-for-like defensive substitutions 

On field errors:

• Defensive calamities
• Slow start: 43 minutes to get going
• Players on their heels
• Goalkeeping fragilities exposed

Now, when United clawed it back to 3-2 we all felt a touch of nostalgia. Would Ole Gunnar Solskjaer redeem himself and the Champions League berth? Sadly for him the answer was no, United collapsed and were rightfully dumped into the recycling bin called the Europa League. Welcome back to where you belong, reds.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Welcome <a href=”https://twitter.com/ManUtd?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@ManUtd</a></p>&mdash; UEFA Europa League (@lfcrealtalk) <a href=”https://twitter.com/lfcrealtalk/status/1336423081192153091?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 8, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

 

Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer it seems the players do not come out with an ounce of motivation. Here’s where Manchester City will hurt them. A bursting start from Pep’s men can close the game off in 10 minutes and you always feel Ole is two bad results away from a crisis.

Paul Pogback out?

Talking of crisis. Paul Pogba’s agent comes out with a huge statement during the club’s biggest week of the season, claiming he wants back out. In all fairness, as with the likes of Sanchez, Memphis Depay, Di Maria and Mourinho he will be the scapegoat for what is now obvious: there’s a rot inside the club which has been oozing a stench for years.

You can sell your disgruntled overpaid stars, but the issue lies far deeper. 

Manchester City is a club which is being run properly. Pep Guardiola’s contract extension shows they want to build a dynasty and his signings are based on a solid principle of playing style. Manchester United have been lacking that since Sir Alex’s departure, and with managers lasting less than a pair of running shoes, it’s time United buckled down on this nonsense.

City to win 0-2 is priced at 8/1 or 9.00

Manchester City to win to nil is yours at 9/4 or 3.25