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Manchester City meet Manchester United at the Etihad stadium tomorrow in the season's first Manchester Derby on Sunday. City are at the top of the league table with 29 points from 11 matches while United have 20 points from the same number of matches. Moreover, City are in great form as they defeated Southampton 6-1 in their last Premier League match. They also won 6-0 against Shakhtar Donetsk in a Champions League last Wednesday.
United, on the other hand, have done well in their last few matches. They came back from behind to beat Newcastle, Bournemouth and Juventus. They also drew with Chelsea in an away game. A win tomorrow would considerably boost their chances of winning the title. However, it is going to be very difficult as City are playing well and have only lost points in 2 league matches so far.
Jose Mourinho, The United manager, would be having happy memories though, as his United side had come from behind to beat Pep Guardiola’s City side 3-2 in an absorbing match in the 2017-18 season.
We would now take a look at the 3 things we expect to see in tomorrow’s match:
#1 Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane’s marauding runs
Both Sterling and Sane are in good form for City as they have destroyed the defence of the opposition with their marauding runs in quite a few matches. Sterling has scored 7 goals in 14 matches for City this season and Sane has scored 3 from 13. Moreover, both of them have provided quite a few assists after dribbling past the opposition defenders.
Sterling usually breaches the opposition defence with his probing runs, goes near the touchline and then delivers a cross to an advancing teammate in the opposition penalty box. Sane, on the other hand, switches to the centre from the left wing and plays the decisive passes. He also gets himself in scoring positions on quite a few occasions to remain a constant threat to the opposition defence.
Maybe, United would employ one of their centre-backs to keep a constant eye on Sterling and their right back would mostly remain in his own half to keep a check on Sane. It would be interesting to see what strategy Mourinho comes up with to tackle this twin threat.
#2 Through balls played by City midfielders
Guardiola’s sides are known for their passing football and evidently, his midfielders play a lot of through balls to the advancing forwards. Tomorrow’s match should be no exception and the speed and agility of the United centre-backs would be tested by the City midfielders.
City are spoilt for choice in the midfield as they a have a number of world-class midfielders in David Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Sane, all of whom are quite adept at playing those vital passes.
United’s centre-backs are in good form but Chris Smalling, especially, is not known for being very fast. Moreover, he would also have to deal with the crosses likely to be played by the likes of Sterling and Sane.
Therefore, Victor Lindelof would have to cover more ground to stop the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero from doing the damage from those through balls. Nemanja Matic and Ander Herrera, United’s defensive midfielders, should try to block those passes as much as possible.
#3 United’s prowess in set-pieces and aerial balls
United would be the more direct of the two teams and would not play as many passes in the midfield as City. They would also be more reliant on the set-pieces as they have some set-piece experts in their side. Juan Mata, Paul Pogba and Ashley Young are all good free-kick takers and would fancy their chances of scoring goals from them.
Mata scored a stunning goal from a free-kick against Juventus and United’s second goal also came from a free-kick. Marouane Fellaini should start tomorrow, but could be used as a substitute to use his heading skills from the set-pieces.
Pogba would also like to test the City goalkeepers with his shots from just outside the box. Fellaini has scored 21 goals for United to date and most of them have come from set-pieces.
Moreover, If Romelu Lukaku is fit to start or used as a substitute, his physical presence is also going to be an asset for United and he can be trusted to chest some crosses down for other players inside the opposition box. Lukaku might like to score a goal or two as well from one of those aerial balls.
