16 Conclusions on Manchester City 3-1 Man Utd: Ten Hag sack, phenomenal Foden, rubbish Rashford

Erik ten Hag was begging to be sacked by Man Utd with those surrendering substitutions, with Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford having different evenings.

1) A familiarly sobering Sunday evening thought must be immediately spared for those Arsenal and Liverpool supporters who not only convinced themselves Manchester City might drop points against one of the more regular thorns in their side, but that in doing so it might further persuade Man Utd that Erik ten Hag could lead their brave revolution.

For almost an hour, the glorious one-two of the champions losing ground in the Premier League title race and Man Utd being set back even just a little more in their endeavour to merely qualify for such sprint marathons by sticking with a dud felt technically feasible.

Then Man Utd imploded, Ten Hag caved, Manchester City overcame their recent supposed semi-crisis to record a 15th win from 16 games with galvanising dominance of their bitter and distant rivals, and order was restored.

Worse still for Liverpool supporters is that Man Utd bravely took on Pep Guardiola’s giants with five academy graduates in the team while struggling with injuries. Jurgen Klopp could never.

This title battle was always most likely to hinge on the meetings between the three heavyweight challengers; Manchester City will expect slightly tougher and more season-defining assignments than this from the trip to Anfield and visit of Arsenal in their next two games, but will be thankful to Man Utd for that revitalising second half nevertheless.

2) One of the many accusations against Erik ten Hag is that his sorry jumble of a Man Utd team lacks an identifiable style of play. It can often be difficult to discern precisely what they work on in training beyond getting the ball to Bruno Fernandes and waiting for something to happen.

They came with a blueprint on Sunday. Ten Hag described it as a “team model” before the game, saying afterwards that “we stuck to the plan“. Defend deep and counter-attack with speed when possible certainly qualifies as a legitimate and clear approach and in the briefest of glimpses possible it showed potential.

The problem comes with the realisation that Man Utd have spent more than a billion pounds – the 15 players used against Manchester City cost almost £350m – to play a Premier League game at the Etihad like an FA Cup tie as plucky but particularly inferior lower-league underdogs enjoying their day in the limelight.

That level of disastrous investment is not entirely on Ten Hag but he is undeniably culpable and any restructure of the executive and recruitment departments at Old Trafford can find no place for the man who pursued Sofyan Amrabat or pushed to spend £82m on Antony; there are increasingly few if any arguments to suggest he should have a part in any coaching setup that wants to be taken seriously either.

Ten Hag Man Utd

Erik ten Hag was shown a yellow card on the touchline for Man Utd.

3) Ten Hag did find improbably early justification to one of his recent complaints. Within a couple of minutes, Bruno Fernandes was rendered prone as Manchester City attacked around him, resulting in a mild penalty shout as John Stones tumbled over under pressure from Casemiro.

The reaction was of predictable eye-rolling annoyance with Fernandes for feigning yet another injury – and so soon into the game, never mind in such a vulnerable position for his team.

The truth soon became clear: Jeremy Doku had booted the ball into the Portuguese’s add-ons and his subsequent inability to move was understandable. Even his most ardent critics might have felt a modicum of sympathy. Might.

4) That incident only made Fernandes’ start all the more impressive. Deployed as a sort of false nine he nevertheless showed his usual reckless positional abandon, at one point popping up near the right corner flag to defend one-versus-one against and presumably seek revenge upon Doku.

Some sublime work rate forced Ruben Dias into conceding a corner from a deep Manchester City throw, before Fernandes tasked himself with defending ably at the near post from a corner at the other end of the pitch.

But most impressive was how brilliantly Fernandes held up the ball early on. He was a genuine outlet, controlling a Diogo Dalot clearance at one point to help Scott McTominay release Alejandro Garnacho, before playing a key role in the sudden and excellent opening goal.

Fernandes has his detractors, and the opprobrium some of his less desirable traits attracts is warranted. But it is laughable just how clear he is as Manchester United’s best player, never mind their most important, resilient and adaptable. Any future building work on this team must use him as the foundation.

5) That goal came from basically nothing. A long ball from Andre Onana exploited the space ahead of Fernandes and Dias, with the latter unable to either prevent the former’s clever turn, nor overcome his apparently irresistible strength.

There was little accounting for Marcus Rashford’s thunderous shot but that fire should have been stamped out long before then.

Fernandes capitalised on another Dias lapse 10 minutes after and the course of the whole game should have been transformed there. The centre-half slipped on the halfway line trying to bring down a speculative hoof, and Fernandes capitalised immediately to send Rashford in behind. Only a poor touch and the presence of Kyle Walker prevented Manchester City from falling two goals behind.

Dias would have been at fault for both goals and he really was poor when required to defend; his improvement in the second half when Man Utd abandoned any attacking pretence and the hosts simply had to focus on possession was no coincidence.

6) That was probably close to what Rashford envisaged when he sought to explain his side of what has been the toughest season of his professional career, both on and off the pitch.

His Players’ Tribune article did not have the desired effect in swaying that wavering fan support, the wider reaction largely being that his actions needs to speak louder than any words can. And that stunning 25-yard shot, struck with months’ worth of anger and resentment, positively bellowed throughout Manchester.

It would have been another clear indication of issues had Rashford not been able to get himself up for this one. His six career goals against Manchester City are only beaten by the eight he has managed against Leicester, and when a reminder was needed of what makes the 26-year-old so brilliant it arrived abruptly and emphatically.

7) That represented not only the peak of Rashford’s 75 minutes, but very possibly his only positive contribution of any sort.

Beyond the aforementioned chance when played in behind by Fernandes, which summarily collapsed when Rashford both made the wrong choice and applied the wrong execution of first touch, there was another occasion when he found himself running into space with the ball in the second half. Slipped in by Scott McTominay, he instead crashed to the ground appealing for a foul.

A minute later, Rashford had no longer even scored the game’s best goal put in that corner of that net by an academy graduate for a Manchester club.

Walker was the defender occupying Rashford’s shadow on both occasions – and very probably his mind. The Man Utd forward seemed panicked both times when his glorious goal should have seen him at his most confident. His England teammate spooked him.

8) There was actually another opportunity that Rashford in a different guise might well have buried. Between the 22nd and 27th minutes, Manchester City made 67 passes to Manchester United’s three. But the first half was summed up neatly by the visitors creating the clearest opportunity in that period, with Fernandes the obvious architect.

His ball into the area – and McTominay’s defender-occupying run – gave Rashford a relatively free hit at the back post. But trying to take it flush on the volley, it fell somewhere between embarrassing shank and complete air-shot.

That technically qualified as Manchester United’s second shot of the game. Their third and last would come in the eighth minute of stoppage time – Casemiro’s tame header from a Fernandes (of course) free-kick. The “plan” Ten Hag had devised relied so heavily on Man Utd making the most of those moments. One was never going to be enough but that is all they and Rashford mustered from those openings.

9) Man Utd deserve credit for their discipline and organisation in the first half. For all Manchester City’s territorial dominance their best chance for much of the game fell to Foden and Onana did well to save when the forward was forced wide. Beyond that, the shots in search of an equaliser could be filed into two sections: blocked by a player in red, or snatched at by one in blue.

It took 26 minutes for the first foul to be committed, with Victor Lindelof upending Foden. Otherwise it was a display of calm and composure, typified by Casemiro cleanly tackling Doku and Jonny Evans using his strength to outmanoeuvre Haaland before immediately sliding in on Foden.

Whether they could maintain those levels and weather the inevitable storm was the issue, and Haaland hilariously missing that open net just before half-time somehow made it even less likely than had he scored.

10) That was a baffling moment from Haaland, whose response to Foden’s gift horse of a header back across goal from Rodri’s gorgeous clipped ball was to forensically check each and every tooth. It was a stupidly simple finish from a couple of yards out under no pressure and the Norwegian somehow put it over.

Haaland did atone for it later with the exclamation mark to a game already long won, but it was notable just how generally poor – or at least below their ludicrously high standards – both he and Kevin de Bruyne were. This entire season has been about Manchester City staying in touch through their absences and then powering ahead upon their returns. They have been sensational at times since coming back but their profligacy and poor decision-making had to be rescued by teammates.

None of De Bruyne’s shots were on target and indeed most of them would have cleared rugby posts, while Haaland had one of those bizarrely ineffective games when he seems to be all limbs and ponytail. The former did not create the most Manchester City chances and the latter did not have the most Manchester City shots; it cannot be often that that is the case when both play the full 90 minutes.

11) The flipside to that is the magnificence of Foden, whose part in this machine was unclear when everyone was available but could not be more solidified now. Everything ran through him and Guardiola’s post-match declaration that “he wins games” felt pointed: Foden has earned a place in that De Bruyne and Haaland bracket.

The last four Premier League games in which Foden has scored have included: a 53rd-minute equaliser in victory over Everton; a 25-minute hat-trick to beat Brentford 3-1; the only goal against Bournemouth; and two wonderful efforts to turn defeat into a win against Man Utd. Three comeback wins and a 1-0 when this title race is demanding perfection in each match, with the 23-year-old the chief orchestrator.

The last thing Manchester City seemed to need was another player who can rise above the system with match-deciding individual brilliance, but when De Bruyne and Haaland fell short of their remit – and when Man Utd were forlornly appealing for free-kicks – Foden embraced the mantle.

12) And it bears repeating that managers are performatively weird so both Guardiola and the watching Gareth Southgate will have been more delighted with Foden tracking back into his own half in the 89th minute to dispossess Antony and win a throw-in when no other Man Utd player was within 30 yards.

Foden Man City

Phil Foden turned the Manchester derby on its head.

13) Oh, Antony. Oh, those substitutions. Willy Kambwala replacing Evans was broadly fine, with 36-year-old legs traded for those of a teenager as Man Utd – by this point level – retreated deeper towards their own goal. Then Antony came on for Rashford with a quarter of an hour left and the Brazilian proceeded to be caught offside in a tone-setting first contribution.

There is little more that can be said to damn either Antony or any individual who played even a vague part in his signing, so unequivocally catastrophic it has been.

But when Manchester City took the lead in the 80th minute, Ten Hag’s double substitution of Garnacho and the quietly effective Kobbie Mainoo for Amrabat and Omari Forson was puzzling. Rashford, poor as he was, at least offered an out-ball and some dangerous runs.

Moments before Foden made it 2-1, the two players Man Utd took off combined to almost swing the lead in their favour. Mainoo played Garnacho through and only the intervention of Ederson prevented things from developing further. Taking them both off for two players who, with all due respect, were not on any timeline, alternate or otherwise, going to affect proceedings in any meaningful way, felt like one final weird surrender.

14) More fool me, because Amrabat meticulously restored balance to the levels of Man Utd scoreline flattery by ensuring Haaland got his goal after he tried to dance past Rodri in his own defensive third. It was more ammunition to those who rage against short goal kicks, as well as to those who reckon they can stick an Amrabat-shaped plaster on a gaping midfield wound.

It is life-affirming to know football clubs still sign players by using the major international tournament shop window. Man Utd do not suffer for a shortage of ways in which their incompetence can be underlined, but bringing Amrabat in because they saw him on ITV a couple of winters ago is a compelling sign regardless.

15) Manchester City’s substitutions provided quite the contrast. Guardiola trusted his players to find the breakthrough, waiting until three minutes after Foden’s goal to make his first change.

Doku had been poor, bereft of inspiration in his one-on-one battle with Dalot. The introduction of Julian Alvarez prompted a shuffle across the board and the World Cup winner had a quick impact as the sounding board for Foden’s give-and-go before the Englishman stroked his finish past Onana.

Guardiola’s second and last substitution was his pièce de résistance: Oscar Bobb on for Foden, who was kindly afforded his deserved moment to bask in the Etihad applause.

16) Onana was pretty good. Some lovely timewasting in parts. But completely separate to that, it was worrying to see the actual goalkeeper go down with cramp in the 64th minute. Hopefully the medical team have caught it early enough to treat. Man Utd cannot say the same for their Champions League hopes.