On reflection, this was an afternoon that may have been best spent in the garden. A derby without bite, a derby without passion and life. By the time it had wandered an drifted aimlessly and pointlessly through 94 minutes of nothing, it hardly felt like a derby at all.
Manchester United were the better team and it was once again possible to see improvement and pattern in Ruben Amorim’s team. Maybe, after all this time, it is starting to come together. We will see. Lyon in the Europaa League quarter-final on Thursday already feels enormous for them.
Certainly had they had a centre forward of note, they may have found a way to this game. But they haven’t and so they didn’t. It’s an enduring problem and one, for the third consecutive year, they will endeavour to try and solve this summer.
As for City, they have regressed so far throughout the course of this season that it is increasingly hard to recognise them. Once again their big names – players like Kevin de Bruyne, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva – drifted through this game like ghosts dressed in blue. Indeed City’s shirts were the only thing vaguely recognisable about the English champions.
De Bruyne in particular – on the occasion of his final game at Old Trafford – looked like a competition winner. Out of legs, out of ideas and, as dreadful as it sounds, out of his depth at this exalted level. It has been a privilege to watch the great Belgian over the last decade but the decline had been quick and without doubt it’s time to go.
City saw a lot of the ball here but never looked like winning the game. It was all sideways and backwards. No penetration. So many times over the last seven or eight years they have come across town and educated their rivals with the quality of their football. Not this time. Not even close. Indeed United were happy to let them play in front of them and counter quickly whenever they could. At times they looked dangerous but only once did they really come close to scoring, substitute Joshua Zirkzee bringing a terrific save from Ederson with 13 minutes of regulation time remaining.
Ruben Amorim (right) and Pep Guardiola (left) saw their sides play out a 0-0 draw on Sunday
Man City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne (centre) was playing in his last ever Manchester derby
United stopper Andre Onana was the busier of the two goalkeepers during Sunday’s stalemate
At the end it was United who were pushing and probing. It was City and their manager Pep Guardiola who were happy to hear the final whistle. It had been United who had started the game the better too.
Amorim’s players can sometimes be slow to get on the front foot but that was not the case here. Within 30 seconds Alejandro Garnacho got free down the left and had the run on Ruben Dias who brought the rampaging forward down half a yard outside the penalty area. Old Trafford hollored for a penalty but the decision was correct and Bruno Fernandes, for all his skills, couldn’t get the free-kick past the City defensive wall.
Sadly that energetic opening didn’t set the tone for the half. United were cheered off at half-time and they had indeed been the better and more dangerous team against a City side that was slow and ponderous and rather anaemic. That didn’t mean it had been a good game, though.
There was no energy, pace or snap to it. It felt as though it needed a tackle or two or a moment of controversy but there was none of it. Too much of what these teams gave us was predictable and one-paced. It felt like an end of season game and the blue sky and sunshine only added to that strange feeling.
City had a number of big hitters in their team. De Bruyne, Foden, Silva and Ilkay Gundogan were all there. But these are players who have become so diminished over the course of this season to have been rendered almost invisible. And – without a focal point in Erling Haaland – City had nowhere to go when they had the ball anyway. No width, no options. It was like watching a team of imposters in blue that had plenty of the ball but little idea about what to do with it.
United were somewhat better. They do move the ball with more intent, confidence and accuracy under Amorim these days and that was the case here. Garnacho was regularly dangerous and he almost got on the end of a Diogo Dalot cross after the wing-back advanced down the right in the 21st minute. Soon after, it was the young Argentinean himself who flew down the line and his pull back found Patrick Dorgu arriving only for a poor first touch to scupper any chance of a shot on goal.
Dorgu then shot over from an angle after a superb length of the field United move. That was probably the best piece of football of the opening half and as often is the case with United, it just needed a little more composure at the end.
United were guilty of a poor final action again on the half hour as Garnacho mugged Mateo Kovacic in midfield only to play the ball slightly behind Fernandes as he made ground to the right.
Bruno Fernandes (left) pictured attempting to flick the ball away from Omar Marmoush (centre)
Phil Foden (second right) pictured being put under pressure by multiple Man United players
City, for their part, could find no such energy or directness. There was a low shot across goal from Gundogan from 20 yards while a super over the top pass from young Nico O’Reilly found Omar Marmoush only for Harry Maguire to block the shot brilliantly.
City desperately needed some width and at least they had players like Jeremy Doku, Savinho and Jack Grealish on the substitutes’ bench. As much as that, however, Guardiola’s team just needed some speed and energy in their football. For the most part it had all been so desperately predictable.
Early in the second period, it was a little better for them. Guardiola had clearly told his players a few simple things in the dressing room. A combination between O’Reilly and Marmoush played Foden in and he perhaps would have scored had it not been for a poor first touch. Ten minutes later, he was taken off. For last season’s double Player of the Year, then end of this miserable campaign cannot come soon enough.
Doku was now on while United also made a change, Victor Lindelof replacing Maguire. With half an hour left, this game desperately needed a goal.
United continued to make good use of their wing-backs on either side. Dorgu’s low cross from the left was cut out by Dias despite the fact that the City defender lost his footing. Moments earlier a dash upfield by Noussair Mazraoui had been halted by a Kovacic tackle.
City finally managed to work Andre Onana in the United goal properly as the hour mark came and went. Both times it was Marmoush, once with a free-kick that Onana dived left to save and then with a crashing volley from a corner that unfortunately for him was struck straight at the goalkeeper from 20 yards. Such was the power, Onana would have stood no chance had the ball arrived a yard either side of him.
Manuel Ugarte was not far away at the other end as he crashed a shot in to the hoardings from the edge of the area. Soon after he was replaced by Mason Mount while City withdrew Gundogan and O’Reilly and sent on Grealish and Rico Lewis.
With fifteen minutes to go, United had not managed to work City goalkeeper Ederson in the second half. They needed to rediscover a threat from somewhere. In fact, for all that they had played some of the better football, Amorim’s team had managed just one shot on target all game at this stage. Zirkzee was now on to try and rectify that, at least, and when he turned a Dorgu cross towards goal Ederson dived to his left to save brilliantly in front of the Stretford End. Mount was quickly on to the rebound but his shot struck a defender.
United owned the final part of the game. They were the team pushing. They continue to be held back by the lack of a goal scorer. But Amorim’s team were on the front foot when the whistle went after 94 minutes and perhaps they will take something from that.
