Bruno Fernandes has revealed a damning tactical problem in Manchester United’s midfield after their defeat against Manchester City on the weekend.
Manchester United suffered their third defeat of the season as Manchester City claimed a dominant 3-0 win in the derby at the Etihad.
Ruben Amorim handed Benjamin Šeško his first start in a United shirt for the high-stakes clash, but it was City who struck first when Phil Foden fired them ahead just before the 20-minute mark. United pushed forward in search of an equaliser before half-time, creating pressure without finding the breakthrough.
After the interval, Amorim’s side came out with intent, yet City quickly killed off the contest. Erling Haaland doubled the lead with a clinical finish, then added a second shortly after to put the result beyond doubt with more than 20 minutes to play.
Bryan Mbeumo and Casemiro both had chances to pull one back, but neither could convert. Under heavy Manchester rain, Guardiola’s men controlled the closing stages with ease, sealing a commanding derby victory and leaving United with more questions than answers.
Fernandes reveals damning United tactical problem in midfield
Bruno Fernandes lined up in the midfield alongside Manuel Ugarte and it was a very difficult afternoon for the two-man pivot who were often overrun by City’s central overloads.
In order to combat that, Amorim wants his wide centre-backs, Luke Shaw and Leny Yoro, to step up into the midfield line when the ball is played into those areas.
Both Shaw and Yoro are good at stepping forward but they won’t always get their timings right, as shown by Shaw failing to step up when Jérémy Doku received the ball for the first goal.
Fernandes spoke to the media after the game about how it was a problem for United when those defenders were not being aggressive, as City were bringing four players into the middle of the park.
“We need people to be very aggressive in the moment of pressure, we need to get the moment of jumping because if not the midfielders get every time underloaded,” the United captain told Sky Sports.
“If you look at City, they had Rodri, Tijjani [Reijnders], Bernardo [Silva] coming in, they had Foden, they make basically a midfield four against the two.
“So you need the ones in behind to jump, like Luke [Shaw] was doing very well on Tijjani and we did it in the first game against Arsenal and they couldn’t find the spaces to play.”
Is Amorim asking too much of his centre-backs?
It has been obvious since Amorim arrived at Old Trafford that the wide centre-backs are crucial to countering the midfield imbalance.
If they do not step up in the right moments, then the likes of Casemiro and Fernandes are completely overrun in the middle, especially by a team like City.
But there remains question marks over whether this is too much of an ask for two natural defenders to so regularly step into midfield zones.
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And even if they do so nine times, the one time they do not engage gives the other team a huge advantage in the middle of the park.
As Fernandes said, it can sometimes be four against two in the middle, which is almost impossible to deal with against top teams.
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