Manchester United could only put up a performance that attempted to stop Manchester City in the derby and that certainly didn't work. One Phil Foden stat further proved how bad they were going forward.
There aren't many teams that can go toe-to-toe with Manchester City. In the Premier League there isn't anyone as good at attacking as Pep Guardiola's champions.
The problem is for their opposition that whilst going toe-to-toe with them leaves you susceptible to a counter attack or nine merely defending and allowing them to pile pressure on is never going to work either.
There's no obvious way to beat Guardiola's side then and that must be pretty frustrating when coming up with a game plan against them. Of course as with any opponent you aren't really going to win if you don't have chances, yes I've gone all Michael Owen.
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United managed just one on target in the entire game, and that was Anthony Martial's penalty, not exactly going to help you win.
And the stats of Phil Foden rather put an exclamation point on how poor United were. The teenager came on in the 92nd minute and managed more passes than Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku combined:
Both Sanchez and Lukaku were substitutes themselves, with Marcus Rashford prefered in the number nine role, but came the pair came on with 19 minutes remaining.
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The stat is also indicative of how City play with the champions of course enjoying a more passing style to United but it's an incredible gap for a player who was only on for a couple of minutes.
Jose Mourinho claimed that United hadn't played badly, saying, "Not a bad performance at all, far from it. One thing is a bad performance, another is a performance with mistakes. Ours was a performance with mistakes. All of the three goals were mistakes and we were punished for that. We were in the game until the 80th minute or something, even the home supporters felt that, but the third mistake punished us with a result that I don't think we deserve."
And whilst the Red Devils were still in the game late on he didn't really have much of a leg to stand on.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Manchester City, Phil Foden, Football News, Manchester United, Alexis Sanchez, Premier League, Romelu Lukaku