How Maresca's Tactics Won The Derby For Man City

The first Manchester derby to see a red card in the last 10 years is all over, but that's not the only thing that happened. Haaland scored a pretty questionable goal, Enzo Maresca out-thought Michael Carrick and Iliman N'Djai changed the game entirely. So settle down, because this is a big one and a game with a lot of things that we need to cover. And obviously, I'm Jacob Orsfall, 442's resident tactician, and this is how 10 men Manchester City stunned their noisy neighbours. To start the game off, we saw Manchester United in a relatively passive 4-4-2, their two forward players weren't looking to actively engage with the Man City centre-halves every single time. And City were in a 3-1 shape, Anderson as basically a lone pivot, with Fernandes and Schurke peeling into the channels, looking to pull one of those central Manchester United midfielders with them, and opening up that angle to find Erling Haaland, who would be coming to feet, going in beyond, trying to get on the ball. But City were really, really passive to start the game, there were so many square passes, Gary Neville spoke about it a lot on the Sky Sports commentary, and they just weren't penetrating a Man United block that wasn't the best organised. In fact, Erling Haaland really struggled. In the first 30 minutes, he didn't touch the ball. Which I think sums up the first 25-30 minutes from Manchester City. They were passive, they weren't finding their best players in the best zones, Schurke, Haaland were all struggling to get properly involved in this game. Whereas, I think Manchester United, who, before the red card, I think were probably the better side, you see here, Mateus Cunha dropping into that box, whilst Bruno goes the other way, opening up the diagonal switch, and opening space behind Cunha, so he can receive the ball and then drive at the Man City defence. Which again, is kind of how Man United were looking to hurt this Man City team, they were kind of leaving it so that the defenders would have to step out of their block to engage with ball-carrying players, and to be fair, when you've got players like Kobe Mainu, you've got players like Mateus Cunha in that central area, using your ball-carrying abilities makes a lot of sense. But, it all changed, about halfway through first half. The first Manchester City player sent off in the dark... This moment changed everything, and I'm going to settle in here, because I don't think it's as simple as it potentially looks on first glance. The first thing we see is Phil Foden makes contact with Bruno Fernandes, clear red card, clear as day, you can't kick out when you're on the floor in that manner, both legs up, gone for his chest, it's a red card, okay? But, if we rewind before Foden's kick, the key moment is Bruno Fernandes initiates it, Bruno Fernandes is the one at fault for the whole action, he kicks Phil Foden on the ground, kicking someone on the ground should be a bookable, at the minimum, offence. Now for me, I think it's stupid from Foden to react in the way he does, it's careless, for someone as seasoned as him, he shouldn't be doing it, but Bruno Fernandes, for me, if you're going to send Foden off, Bruno Fernandes has got to go as well. You cannot let him kick someone on the ground and get away with it. But in the end, it actually turned out, working in Man City's favour, and Manchester United fell apart, despite obviously being the team with 11 men on the pitch. However, it didn't all just click straight away for City as soon as they went down to 10 men, it wasn't some sort of magic fix, in fact, even after the red card, United were still probably the better team up until half-time, and this is probably why. Here, they've got this sort of central midfield overload. Now, the only way City could really handle this, with being down to 10 men, was if one of the centre-halves, probably Ruben Dias, was to step out of the backline and close that space. But when you're up against Manchester United, at Old Trafford, the last thing you want to do is vacate space in beyond, because if Dias steps, and Bueno, or Rashfad, or Kunio, or Bruno, go in beyond, and then someone picks them out, and all of a sudden, United are in the position that they dream of, which is sort of transitional, in-beyond-the-defence moments. Now, Ruben Dias did step out a few times, trying to deal with that, trying to go touch-tight to Bruno and Kunio, but in the end, I think for the most part, he did stay in that back four, really, really taking the hit of, they can have that overload in front of me, but I'm not going to step out and let them go beyond me, because that's obviously so much harder to actually deal with. But United still had ways to hurt Man City, with City being down to 10 men. We saw them constantly look to target this right-hand side of the pitch, trying to go down there, creating overloads, combining quickly in build-up, before they reach the final third. Now, this would mean Schurke and Anderson, in that midfield, would get pulled over, alongside Enzo Fernandes as well, obviously. And then, United had Rashfad as almost a spare man on the opposite side, 1v1 with Mateus Nunes. If they switched it quickly, he could get on the ball and look to really attack that Now, I thought Nunes did really, really well with Rashfad, he handled him really well, but Rashfad still registered the most touches in the opposition box, out of any player on the pitch, in that first half, and that's how United sort of made most of their extra man. Although, other than Rashfad hitting the post from that free kick, and trying to force things to happen, they didn't really cause all that much danger, when they needed to, because at half-time, it all just switched, entirely. In the second half, City changed their shape to more of a narrow 4-4-1, or 4-2-3. Instead of the centre midfielders going wide, we had them come in really, really deep as a pair, with just two players in that central area. Now, Manchester United decided to go man-to-man in this moment, and they did it pretty much throughout the full second half, they went man-to-man, trying to squeeze the men, which makes sense, you're at home, you're in a derby. City have made mistakes this season at the back under Enzo Maresca, they made mistakes in this game at the back under Enzo Maresca, and United really had an extra man that they had to go for it. But, that left big space beyond the midfield line, and in between that midfield line and the Manchester United defence, which obviously City didn't have a spare man to flow into that space. But, it was something that, later down the line, caused Manchester United some big, big problems. Because, this is where Idiman Ndiaye comes into this game, and I really do just want to emphasise, I thought he was incredible, arguably man of the match for me, I know Elliot Anderson got it and deserved it, but I think Ndiaye changed this game from not just a tactical point of view, but from just a player performance level. He was incredible in this game, and without him, I don't think City go and get the three points from this game. And, his biggest impact, for me, was just how versatile he was. He was on this right wing, and Man United were obviously man-to-man against Man City's backline and build-up. But, Ndiaye would just come back, get on the ball, and then turn and look to attack the Manchester United space in between the midfield and defence, driving with it, pulling defenders to him, giving Haaland room on his defender's shoulder to come to feet, or Semenu's space off of his full-back to go in beyond. That was how City found solutions if they didn't want to go long, if they weren't going to try and hit Erling Haaland. But, the real brilliance within Ndiaye, I think, and the reason he made sense coming on as a 10-man team, is because he can do everything. He's so versatile. Yes, he's a ball-to-feet winger who wants to take his man on, that's him at his foundation, that's his core. But, he's also dynamic 1v1, he's a great ball-carrier, obviously, but he's also got that tight feet in small conditions, small conditions, small spaces, and he can do the traditional winger, heavy-duty running that is what made the Erling Haaland goal. Haaland would be coming a little bit deeper when Man City were looking to go long from build-up, and that meant that Ndiaye and Semenu were supposed to get around him and win those second balls. And, I think this is something that is slightly different for Haaland compared to his role in the first half. I mean, he took zero touches in the first 13 minutes and finished the game with 30, and I think his second half really, really changed his role. Enzo Moresca made a little tweak to how he wanted to use him, because he was flicking balls on, and then Ndiaye and Semenu showed the tenacity to win the second balls, and then Ndiaye especially, his intention is to drive at the opposition's defence, taking City into a 4v5 on the edge of the Manchester United box, with just one Manchester United midfielder in frame here, and I believe it's Kobi Mainu, if my memory serves me right. And then we skip forward a little bit, some good things happen, it ends up at the back post, and Haaland scores. Now, that move just doesn't happen without Illiman Ndiaye doing what he does, and I am going to get onto the fact that this is a controversial goal, but I just want to emphasise that Ndiaye's ability to do so much for Man City, to do everything, to do the little things that really matter, is what made him such a good substitute appearance for a ten-man side. Now, the goal, it shouldn't have stood, I'll be honest. I mean, I think City deserve the goal based on their second-half performance, but Enzo Fernandes impacts the play. When he's making that diving header, he was in an offside position, he dives toward the ball, Martínez then goes to him, whether or not Martínez would drop all the way back to Haaland, I don't think he does, I think he's probably still in that central area, but look at where Lemenza's, he can't come all the way across to that back post to stop the near-pool shot from Haaland, because he has to get ready for that header from Enzo Fernandes. And obviously Martínez's body position maybe is a little bit different, maybe he's able to come and close Haaland down before he gets that shot off. So he impacts it, 100%, 100%, and it shouldn't be allowed to play, but I don't think that that should excuse Manchester United, it shouldn't let Michael Carrick, it shouldn't let Manchester United off the hook, because that goal was stoppable from their point of view. Because Manchester United were still going man-to-man, high up the pitch, well into that second-half, well around when that goal was happening. Bear in mind, in the second half, Man City went long 25 times, 25 times they tried to play long, which is what they were trying to do as a solution in build-up, because Manchester United had a numerical equilibrium, they were equal in that sort of numbers game in the first phase. But Manchester United didn't take note of that, they continued to squeeze high, they continued to press, which I understand, but it just felt like stubbornness, naivety, to not imagine that City were going to find those solutions with the players that they have. And it leaked into the sort of fouls, we saw again, Man City going forward, didn't have a numerical advantage, even in their best chances, they were still probably in underloads, yet we still saw Manchester United players diving in and committing senseless fouls, which just allows City to break the game up and manage the time. In fact, United committed 13 fouls in the second half, Man City committed just three, just three fouls in that second half, whereas United committed 13. And it just feels mental, you're the team with 11 men, you're the team at home, you're the team sort of trying to get back into the game, yet you're just giving Man City a way to kill the clock, to time it down, and it felt like silly game management, especially considering when we compare the squads, you know, this United team have played in derbies before, they've won at Old Trafford in derbies, the City team, most of them haven't even experienced a derby. Never mind won one, but they had the sort of calmness, settled down, we've done this before, we've been in these moments before, and just killed the game. And United let them do that, in fact, United encouraged them to do that. So it just felt a little bit daft, whereas Mariska, again, full credit to him, full credit to the substitutions, full credit to the changes, he was alert to the sort of game, the game state, the situation, and that's why Man City got one over their noisy neighbours. Even though the first half was dull, that second half had everything, I thought it was a really, really good watch, just like this video's been. So if you've enjoyed, do leave a like and subscribe, we've got more content coming next week, analysis of everyone, will Manchester United get going under Carrick this season? They've been struggling, will Man City really get a run going now with that win against Manchester United, because they've not been at their best just yet. Let me know in the comments below, and we'll see you all again next week for some more brilliant analysis.