United suffer humiliating 3-0 defeat to City in derby

Marc Skinner's side were outclassed in the derby as defensive frailties and fatigue exposed a squad stretched beyond its limits

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Manchester United have lost back-to-back WSL games after being humiliated in the Manchester derby on Saturday lunchtime. City came away with the three points after scoring three goals inside the first half in a game convincingly won by the home side.

All the praise this season – and particularly following Wednesday night’s huge Champions League win over PSG – has focused on the defensive resilience of Skinner’s side. This performance was far from anything that could be described as resilient. The cracks didn’t just start to appear for United in that first half; they were forced open and remained that way, with little being done to repair the damage. Here’s what I took away from the game.

First half disaster

Marc Skinner made four changes from Wednesday night, with Dominique Janssen, Ella Toone, Elisabeth Terland and Leah Galton all coming into the starting XI. However, from kick-off, City started the game the strongest, getting in behind United’s back line and causing issues, particularly through Vivianne Miedema and Lauren Hemp, and it really felt like a goal for City was coming.

In the 26th minute, City took the lead, with Rebecca Knaak winning the second ball from a corner and looping her header into the top corner. From a United point of view, this is becoming a pattern in most games: the failure to win second balls from set pieces is costing the team goals.

In the matches against Everton and Aston Villa, both goals came from United not winning the second ball on a set play, with no player seemingly taking responsibility to stop the shot coming in. Defending set pieces has been a huge weakness in United’s play this season, with it appearing that Skinner is opting more for a zonal marking set-up than player-to-player marking – and City took advantage with the first goal. It feels like an inevitable outcome if United continue to defend set pieces this way, especially against the top teams.

City scored two more just before half-time, both poor again from a United point of view. You could see the mental and physical fatigue starting to set in towards the end of the half, with Hinata Miyazawa and Julia Zigiotti Olme not covering the ground in midfield as they usually would.

For the second goal, Anna Sandberg was behind the play and unable to stop the cross, while Safia Middleton-Patel in goal misjudged it, allowing an easy tap-in for Khadija Shaw. The third goal followed a similar pattern of United being off the pace: the ball came to Hemp on the edge of the box, Zigiotti Olme went to close her down but stopped a few yards short, and Hemp was able to shoot around her.

These are errors we weren’t seeing in the first part of the season, when United were pressing harder and closing down players much faster – which points more towards a lack of energy in the side right now.

Second half changes

Skinner brought on Melvine Malard at half-time for Terland, which felt like the right decision, opting for a more direct approach. While United were better in the second half, they failed to register a single shot on target across the full 90 minutes – a massive letdown for a side that were the league’s top scorers only last weekend.

United had 67% of the possession in the second half, with eight shots coming from it. The worrying sign for United at the moment is that when teams find a way to stop Jess Park, there doesn’t seem to be another plan from Skinner to utilise the forward players at his disposal. All those who started, and those who came on, with the exception of Malard, made little impact on the game.

One player who featured on the bench again was young Wales international Mared Griffiths. In a match where United were lacking energy and something different in midfield and attack, this would have been the perfect opportunity to bring her on. Griffiths hasn’t played for United this season despite starting and scoring for Wales, and as the weeks go on and the squad becomes more stretched with the fixture list, her lack of minutes is becoming increasingly questionable.

Final word

Overall, it was a pitiful showing from United – lacking any sense of urgency and exposing the frailties of a squad playing multiple matches in a week. It has felt for a while that this team were starting to run out of steam, and it was more a question of when we would see this type of performance than if.

Skinner said in his post-match press conference: “It’s a strange thing to lose the game 3-0 and still feel the opponent wasn’t that far ahead of you.” But with United failing to register a single shot on target and now sitting seven points behind City in the league table, it’s hard not to question how Skinner could view City as not being far ahead of United.

The team travels to Germany next week for another tough Uefa Women’s Champions League game, this time facing Wolfsburg before the international break. I would expect to see plenty of changes for that match, with several tired legs already and another busy month of fixtures ahead in December. They need to make sure they reach the winter break within touching distance of the top three in the WSL and with a shot at the UWCL knockouts.

Investment is needed for this squad to truly match its potential. However, there are tactical and personnel changes that could be made in the short term to ensure results don’t continue on a downward trend before the end of the calendar year.