MANCHESTER UNITED go into Sunday’s derby showdown vs City desperate for a rare double over their fierce rivals.
Ruben Amorim and Pep Guardiola both have some huge calls to make with their seasons not exactly going to plan.
Serial champions City are desperately scrapping for a spot in the top four, while United are in the midst of one of their worst seasons ever.
It’s a far cry from the 2011-12 season when the Manchester giants were battling all the way to the final day for the title, with Sergio Aguero’s last-gasp winner vs QPR sealing City’s first Premier League crown on goal difference.
So, a slightly different encounter this time around, but a very important one for both sides.
In the latest episode of SunSport’s Tactics Exposed, our expert DEAN SCOGGINS breaks down the key points for the derby.
Why does Amorim keep playing Garnacho on the left?
This is a hot topic for United. Alejandro Garnacho is infuriating fans because he’s getting in good positions.
So often, United are doing a good job defensively, moving the ball into midfield. They were struggling to get the ball out from the back but they’ve improved.
However, Garnacho is getting the ball in wide positions, where he likes it When he receives the ball, he’s straight away faced up by his defender.
He wants to take run the defender inside, so you get a centre-back coming across and another centre-back come in. The defence comes in, then you get a midfielder come back and he ends up in a traffic jam.
In the Nottingham Forest game, Forest defended very deep on the edge of their own box and Garnacho had five or six shots from long-range, but none of them were clean – and that’s because he’s crowded out.
Second thing: when he gets inside, he’s got a wing-back who likes to run. So Patrick Dorgu is going up the outside of him.
The number of times he’s making this run and Garnacho is not giving him the ball is infuriating Man Utd fans. That has to change.
He has to give the ball to Dorgu in that area for the overlap, because that’s where you open up this space for the cross with the other players arriving.
We saw United in previous games – like against Arsenal – when Garnacho was freed up on the right – and that was because he made a run and had a fullback, which was Noussair Mazraoui, running up the inside of him in that position.
Whenever Garnacho doesn’t play, everyone’s saying Garnacho should play… and when Garnacho does play, he’s infuriating to watch, but he’s almost there. So he’s got to play.
Should he be playing on the left? I’m not quite so sure. Without Amad Diallo, they need a ball runner who will take players on.
This Amorim formation is all about players running at full-backs and at defenders to try and take them into the box. And Garnacho is the only real player in the United team who does that.
I’d like to see Garnacho on the right in this game, because at the moment, the chemistry between him and Dorgu on the left is not quite there.
But I’d like to see Garnacho still in the team… United are going to need an out-ball against Man City, and Garnacho will hopefully provide that.
Can United beat City with less possession?
Against Nottingham Forest in the week – a 1-0 defeat – Man Utd had nearly 70 per cent possession. It was the same against Man City earlier in the season.
City had all the possession, and United were comfortable without the ball.
United are doing very well at the back at the moment to get into a very good shape from where they can spring counterattacks.
That’s a problem when they play against a team who drops right off like Nottingham Forest – but that won’t happen in this game, because City will dominate possession.
City will get into a 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 shape in attack and United defenders are going to mark man-for-man.
We’ll see wingers being marked by wing-backs, and central midfielders going man-for-man… so, it’s how they get the ball and spring the counterattack.
They’ll be quite happy to soak up possession. We saw them do it first half against Arsenal, in a great performance against Liverpool, and then that great win against Manchester City.
But… this time it’s at Old Trafford, so they’re going to get a bit of pressure from the crowd. It’s a derby, they want to see progressive football.
For me, the transition of defence into attack is where they haven’t quite got it right.
It comes in two triangles – one on the right flank and another on the left… if they get the ball in this area, can they play the ball into a player who’s being pressed to either play long or can they get it to a winger to get them into a dangerous 1v1 situation.
That’ll be the plan. Whether they can carry that out or not is another matter.
Is Marmoush better suited to playing United than Haaland?
This is a very difficult question. What team would not have Erling Haaland in it?
But, this does happen for Manchester City quite a lot… they get stuck around the edge of the box, and Haaland’s not moving… not doing anything.
There’s two sides to that… one the one hand, he is occupying a defender and they want him in the box for the cross.
But on the other hand, in the 2-0 win over Leicester midweek, you could see without Haaland that Omar Marmoush and then Doku one side and Savinho the other formed a very flat front three.
When they played Newcastle earlier in the season, Marmoush scored a hat-trick as part of a front two with Haaland – but when they play United, that is not going to work, because of their back three.
And so if Haaland played, you know United are going to sit deep… they’re immediately a back five, with the wing-backs.
It would be a complete traffic jam with fans frustrated because they’re not breaking the lines, with the centre-backs getting loads of touches with passes played back to them.
So against United, we’ll see a tight front three from City, with Foden, Marmoush and De Bruyne… they’ll use Savinho, Doku or Grealish to really hold the width on the other side.
Because of this narrow front three, you end up with space around the edges of the box and, unlike Haaland, Marmoush won’t just park himself on the centre-back.
We’ll see much more rotation of the front-three with Marmoush in tandem with one of the other two and then we would have done with Haaland – who can be a bit of a passenger when the opposition parks the bus.
Marmoush has had twice as many touches per game than Haaland so far this season, so from the point of view of a frustrated City fan, perhaps Marmoush is the one to unlock things.
De Bruyne or Fernandes?
Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes. The two captains, the two talismans…
It will be a really intriguing battle because if we end up with Garnacho on the right and Fernandes plays as one of the attacking midfielders, we could see De Bruyne in the inside right position, where he’s trying to put crosses into the box.
It may well be Fernandes who’s tracking him back. And one thing you can guarantee is that De Bruyne will want Fernandes going that way.
If Fernandes and De Bruyne are going that way, City are gonna have a lot of joy.
But we know Fernandes’ work rate. We know that later in the games, he creates chances. We know that 60, 70, 80 minutes in, it’s Bruno who appears on the ball in an attacking area.
Maybe that’s where Pep will make the change later on. If City are winning the game, take De Bruyne off and get somebody else on Bruno.
Put me on the spot, I’m going to back De Bruyne because I fancy hin to get in a position where he’s gonna whip it across the face and Marmoush is going to get on the score sheet.
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