Instead of facing a vicious rival in a local mega-derby, Manchester City had more of an exhibition match six days ago. Pep Guardiola’s side were pretty much on auto-pilot when they faced United in the Manchester derby – the Red Devils did not trouble the reigning Premier League champions at all that Saturday afternoon.Sun, 21/11, 17.00: (1.18) MAN CITY (8.00) EVERTON (19.00)Prior the clash, as the Citizens were preparing, there was some uncertainty on the Spaniard’s behalf – he was unsure as to whether United would go with a back four or five.United utilized the latter option in their 3-0 victory against Tottenham while their 2-2 draw with Atalanta in the Champions League saw them going to a back four mid-way through (Raphael Varane’s injury caused the change in the layout).Solskjaer gives himself, his staff and uncapped Man United players a week offCitizens’ midfielder Kevin De Bruyne revealed that his team spent just ten minutes training on tactics ahead of their match against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men. De Bruyne’s guest appearance at Dutch podcast Mid Mid added more salt to United’s wound.’The day before a game we usually train tactically, based on how the opponent plays.’Before United, Pep said: ‘We don’t know how they are going to play. We shall see’. And we stopped training after 10 minutes or so.’Often Pep knows how the opponent is going to play. This time he didn’t know, so he didn’t know what to do.’We have done what we always do, but he didn’t know beforehand if they would play with five at the back, with four, a diamond in the middle, or with three up front.’Manchester is blue – Citizens are just too much for the unstable UnitedEventually, United came out with a back five with three central defenders in Harry Maguire, Eric Bailly and and Victor Lindelof – with Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka operating on the flanks. It is strange the Norwegian decided to set his players up in such way since the same approach led his team to a nightmare thirteen days earlier – Liverpool trashed them 5-0 at home.As if De Bruyne likes ‘making fun’ of the Red Devils – this isn’t the first time he revealed that City took short preparations ahead of the Manchester clash.In a Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg back in January 2020 – City beat United 3-1.Times are bad to be a Manchester RedBelgian was asked after the game how much tactical work had gone into their preparations.’We did 15 minutes this morning. That’s about it.’ De Bruyne said.’But it’s not like we never did it before so we did already a sometimes against teams who prefer to play man against man – Cardiff, United, I think Barcelona the way we did it the first year. So we’ve done it a couple of times.’Even though the Old Trafford club executives keep stating they believe in the Norwegian and that he will stay the first team manger – realistically, Solskjaer’s future is hanging by a thread.##NAJAVA_MECA_5974648##
