Terrace Talk - Man United: Organisation without inspiration in dullest derby in years

Manchester City's Rodri (left) and Manchester United's Scott McTominay battle for the ball. Picture: Phil Noble

Pep Guardiola walked off deep in conversation with Michael Carrick. As the animated Manchester City manager showed more signs of life than the preceding game, perhaps he was reflecting on the role both used to play.

Previous meetings of the two halves of Manchester been known for Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen, Sergio Aguero and Mario Balotelli, but this was the derby of the defensive midfielder. The defining figures were Guardiola and Carrick’s successors, men charged with shielding the respective defences. Fernandinho and Rodri, Scott McTominay and Fred brought positional discipline. They were double pivots for sides who each only permitted two shots on target, safety blankets who smothered the drama this occasion often brings. The stalemate was an advertisement for their merits and an indictment of their managers.

Guardiola is the purist while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the adventurer who likes to style himself on Alex Ferguson, but there was a shared commitment to keeping at least six outfield players behind the ball. This was more Jose Mourinho against Rafa Benitez than Guardiola versus Jurgen Klopp. “The important thing is we didn't concede,” said Guardiola, sounding like Tony Pulis. “I’m delighted with the defensive shape,” said Solskjaer, channelling his inner Sam Allardyce.

And so a fixture that has seen many a spectacular scoreline in the last decade – 3-2, 4-2 and, most famously, 6-1 – amounted to a phoney war, a non-aggression pact. City often begin with a blitz at Old Trafford; not this time. United, scarred by the need for comebacks, didn’t trail for once, but didn’t produce a stirring response either. Teams wounded by 6-1 and 5-2 hammerings in Manchester this season showed their conservative sides. For Solskjaer, it was a damage-limitation exercise, sparing him suggestions United are in freefall. Pre-match, he had talked of a title challenge. Post-match, his innate optimism again verged on the delusional when he said it was his United’s best performance against City.

But solidity at either end was facilitated by sterility. Organisation without inspiration rendered this the dullest Manchester derby since 2015. Then Manuel Pellegrini’s City were in decline and Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United were an undistinguished, defensive side. Neither manager was in charge the following year. Five years on, this was a tale of City’s swift regression and United’s stark limitations.

Manchester United's Scott McTominay misses with a chance on goal at the back post. Picture: Michael Regan

United’s counter-attacking menace is sufficiently well known that opponents come cloaked in caution. “Look last season how they beat us,” said Guardiola, remembering twin derby defeats. Like Frank Lampard in October, he compromised on his cavalier instincts, kept more men back than normal and accepted a 0-0 at Old Trafford. Cut off the counter-attack and United are starved of footballing oxygen, a one-dimensional team without that lone dimension. Solskjaer’s type of football feels frozen in time in 2008, before Guardiola and Klopp emerged to produce an attacking, possession game.

His United have a solitary league goal in open play at Old Trafford this season; Heung-Min Son has two on his own. Beyond giving the ball to Bruno Fernandes, there is no strategy to break down a packed defence. Two years into Solskjaer’s reign and his team are both wildly inconsistent and unchanging, yet to formulate any other plan.

But there was a shared lack of ambition. Donny van de Beek, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden were all left as unused substitutes. If that hints at the struggles of Silva, a former tormentor of United and the best attacking midfielder in the country two seasons ago, the Portuguese’s relapse is a reason why Kevin de Bruyne has become the City Fernandes; for once, that is not a compliment. In each case, it appears as if all of their team-mates have ceded nearly all the creative responsibilities to one man. Each found himself in an area patrolled by two holding midfielders.

Guardiola’s uncharacteristic negativity is a reason. If Solskjaer places more faith in Fred and McTominay to anchor the midfield than, say, Paul Pogba against elite opponents, Guardiola fielded two defensive midfielders because he does not fully trust any one.

But Fernandinho excelled in a throwback performance as City equalled a club record with a sixth successive clean sheet. “A platform,” said John Stones, but they didn’t build on it. His renaissance has been one of the season’s more surprising stories, but it is overshadowed by City’s bluntness in attack. Take out the annual 5-0 thrashing of Burnley and they have 12 goals in 10 games. For the first time since January 2017, they have failed to score in consecutive away league matches.

They lost slickness and spark when David Silva, often an Old Trafford talisman, departed. When Sergio Aguero is injured, as he increasingly is, and Raheem Sterling, is below par, as he was on Saturday, it feels as though, De Bruyne apart, the greats have been replaced by the good.

United’s clean sheet owed as much to City’s lack of intent and incision as Harry Maguire’s defiance and David de Gea’s save from Riyad Mahrez. “Defensively, we were imperfect,” said the goalkeeper. A day of attacking imperfections was ideal for defensive midfielders.