Premier League 2021/22: How Man City Outclassed Man United – Tactical Analysis

The 11th game week of the 2021-22 Premier League season featured the Manchester Derby where local rivals Manchester United and Manchester City battled it out at the Old Trafford.

While City have so far had a decent start to the season with a couple of upsets like the one against Crystal Palace last week, United have had a very poor season with pressure mounting enormously on Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s head owing to their poor string of performances over the last couple of months.

Despite winning handsomely against Spurs, Ole’s men had a lot to prove against much more formidable opposition and local rival City with a win seriously important to their season and the future of Ole at the club. 

This tactical analysis features the tactics used by both the managers and how Pep Guardiola outclassed his counter-part to take away the 3 points comfortably.

Let’s begin the analysis.

Lineups

Manchester United lined up in the same formation that Ole has been using since the Liverpool hammering.

With Varane being injured, Bailly was drafted in his place while Greenwood came into the lineup for the injured Cavani.

Manchester City, on the other hand, made two changes to the lineup where Stones replaced the suspended Laporte while Gundogan replaced Jack Grealish in the lineup as Guardiola once again went with a double false-9. 

City’s plan in for the game

With United using a 3-4-1-2 in possession, City decided to go with the same 4-3-3 that they been using under Guardiola since his arrival at the club.