Premier League 2021/22: Why it could have been worse for Man City in their Man United win – tactical analysis

The second Manchester derby of this Premier League season was played on Sunday with Manchester City hosting Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium. The result, as many expected, was a Man City win and the hosts had a clear margin over their neighbours. It would be a very easy task to address how good were City, including how they dominated the game. We want to give this game another angle of analysis by demonstrating some transitions scenes of the game. As we all knew, this could be City’s biggest weakness and they could suffer.

Ralf Rangnick took references from Antonio Conte’s Tottenham to set up his team. In the counter-attacks, there were similarities in terms of how they attacked the rest defence, leading to an equalizer but the same set up, unfortunately, also gave Kevin De Bruyne the second goal. This analysis will explain the transitions tactics of Man United in the derby.

Lineups

City were missing some first-team players due to injuries. Both centre-backs, Rúben Dias and Nathan Aké could not play, so John Stones and Aymeric Laporte partnered in the defence, with João Cancelo and Kyle Walker as the full-backs. This time, Bernardo Silva returned to the midfield to join Rodrigo Hernández and De Bruyne, as Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish started as wingers, and so Phil Foden could play as the false-9 again.

In this game, United opted for a 4-4-2 formation, they were without Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphaël Varane, so Rangnick had to adapt. Victor Lindelöf and Harry Maguire started together as the centre-backs. In the midfield, Scott McTominay returned from injury and joined Fred as the 6s, with Anthony Elanga and Jadon Sancho as the wingers, Marcus Rashford came on as a substitute. Two midfielders, Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes were the strikers on paper but the team should be driven by the principles of plays.