On rewatch, I was astounded at the constant 3v2 overload City had in the middle of the pitch. There was no press from Diallo-Sesko-Mbeumo, so it meant City's forwards kept dropping into the space in behind Fernandes-Ugarte, so City easily found a forward in space.

There were some occasions City gave the ball away or United turn the ball over, but whenever United got into promising positions, the final ball or delivery was horrific on more than one occasion:

So what can you do to combat this? Well, United's centre-backs push up aggressively onto the dropping forward, BUT City used this against them, when Doku drops it creates a 3v2 overload in City's favor, Yoro comes out but doesn't know whether to drop or stay

What happens in the end, is he has to drop back to cover Doku but it allows Foden to travel 10 yards freely up the pitch. In another scenario later, when Yoro pushes up to cover Foden, Gvardiol says 'alright no worries I'll just travel then'

It scatters United's block to one side and leaves Rodri in space. Just look at what a problem it is for United when City were manipulating the gaps in their midfield block of four. The centre-backs are waiting to jump but the pass to the forwards is still on.

When United didn't press City high, they resorted to a deep 5-4-1 block, and insanely, it wasn't compact at all. The first goal happens, when Doku finds a gap in between the midfield and Rodri can play a simple pass. ONCE AGAIN CENTRE-BACK HAS TO STAY

There were times United's press did turn the ball over from a result of their intention to be on the front foot, but it didn't matter because nothing came of the space they created, despite them knowing the gaps were clearly wide

Especially in the 2nd half, United started using City's press and playing it around them. Baiting them in before finding a remarkable amount of space getting close to City's penalty area, but as has been the case throughout this thread....the final ball was lacking.

By the time situations like this were happening, United had thrown everyone forward and Haaland had two one on one chances. The more worrying thing in terms of the system for this game was how easily City found space. United found it too, but weren't productive from wide areas.

The more concerning thing, is that City are trying something bold and odd without the ball, there was gaps that United found but because of how ridiculous and not compact the setup was for United they were made to pay.

Things may have changed if they scored one of their chances 2nd half (as they did have many) but as is the case for all their games this season, they haven't taken chances when creating them and there are problems with the setup to address (or it seems......not)

@dharnishiqbal I understand why Amorim plays Fernandez deep. It's meant to release the ball quicker into those created spaces. But now, the quality of runs from the fwds has to be 👌. Now, Bruno, for all his quality, looks lost because he is unhappy in that position. He looks unhappy

@dharnishiqbal The players need to do better.