Before going into the match analysis, there’s a few things that I would like to address today.

First, Ruben is setting the rules.
Although he mentioned that there’s no disciplinary reasons for Rashford and Garnacho not being on the list for yesterday’s match, there may be reasons to believe that this is somehow a way of punishment.
For sure, it wasn’t a reward!

Without getting into much details, as I believe they may not be out for the exact same reasons, the truth is that Garnacho is not performing amazingly and the way left the field (against Forrest, when he was subbed) wasn’t the best.

And the news of him being the one sharing confidential information certainly didn’t help.

Rashford, as mentioned before, is getting the result of his efforts, not only since Ruben joined, but probably before, way before.

Second, Ruben knows what to say and when to say.

Stating that “when people at the Club are being dismissed, we need to set the standards incredibly high” he’s doing 2 things, one inside (to the squad) and another outside the group, specially to the fans.

Indoors, to be having that message said by the Coach, after a win against their biggest rival at the moment (even if historically Liverpool FC could also be considered one of the biggest, if not the biggest, rival), playing away in a particular situation as this one, when everyone is aware that the teams’ level is completely different and when leaving 2 of the most influential players of the recent past out of the list, speaks loud.

Undoubtedly, a big noise.

Additionally, to the outside world, this creates a belonging feeling and atmosphere that Ruben knows exactly how to create.

Any fan of Man United after hearing these words can relate to that feeling, the one of wanting to be great again, everyone will want to belong to this new Man United.

Ruben knows the size of Manchester United, he knows that it’s a monster that has been asleep for the past decade or so, but as any other monster, when waking up, goes back to his shape (or should I say dominance) as nothing happened before.

Thirdly, as I mentioned a lot of times here, some players are easy to understand better than others. 

But, at this moment, Ruben is understanding one of 3 things: the ones that have the quality and want to be part of the future United; the ones that don’t have the quality to belong to this Club; and the ones that don’t want.

Simply as that, it takes 2 to dance.

And some will definitely not match their ambitions or standards.

About the match… Bravo!

I said here that Manchester City wasn’t on their best shape, but what happened surprised me, specially the 1st half. 

A lot more dominance than expected from United, although the stats gave more ball possession to City, somehow I felt that United was on top of the Game.

Even without any team creating great chances (according to Sofascore website, City ended the game with 0,95 xG and 0 great chances of scoring a goal).

On the second half, specially after Kovacic came in (I’ve missed a few players of the starting 11 on both sides and he was one of them), there was more balance in City’s team, as Guardiola created almost like a diamond shape with Kovacic, Gündogan, Matheus, Foden and Bernardo (these two rotating more to not lose width) against Ugarte and Mainoo.

Although there were more chances created by United on the 2nd half, the feeling of dominance of the Game wasn’t as strong as on the first one.

Nonetheless, Football is full of surprises and after a lack of quality in Matheus’ decision making skills, first on the pass and secondly on the approach that lead to the penalty, United enjoyed the momentum and City collapsed completely.

It was a shock to Guardiola, but we can’t say that it wasn’t deserved, or that United didn’t fought for the goals.

Probably the fairest result that would be a draw, but if needing to decide for a winner, we would hardly say it should be Manchester City.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned before the Game, City became a team with less to none enthusiasm to watch.

On United’s side, the current enthusiasm will be facing some future defeats as the squad is not extensive enough to be able to keep up with the demand of Games.

However, Ruben presented again improvements on all aspects of the Game, specially on the Defensive behaviors of the midfield and the defensive line.

Maguire, Martinez and De Ligt were very well, normally getting the ball in front of them and in a moment that they are really strong, specially in the air duels.

Mazraoui was very competent, and although I find the future hard for him in this system, he will be very helpful in these kind of big matches, were the right-wing needs to be more a defender than a winger.

Højlund, Bruno and Amad tried the entire match to give more solutions when attacking and are really, really strong when pressing and Ugarte was simply amazing!
It was a shame that Mount got an early injury, but (as I expected, and also missed) Mainoo came on the field with a very solid performance.

In the 3 days, another competition, another great match against another team that isn’t on their best shape, but always a strong opposition – Tottenham Hotspur.

Let’s see what next match will bring, but I’m starting to think more about the Winter Transfer Window, as I believe Ruben will not want to wait for the end of the month of January to have the (new) team with working him.

(All data presented here is by Sofascore website)