Despite Manchester City playing Manchester United last weekend, Kevin de Bruyne can reveal that the club spent minimal time preparing for the match.
Last weekend, Manchester United and Manchester City met for a city break at Old Trafford. A hard-pressed Ole Gunnar Solskjær had to watch his players be played around by the city rivals, and the light blues comfortably won 2-0.
This happened just a week after Liverpool humiliated United 5-0 at Old Trafford.
And although the result in the match against City was not nearly as ugly, several experts thought that United’s performance was as poor as in the match against Liverpool.
Pep Guardiola’s men overtook Manchester United, who at times were barely allowed to touch the ball by their rivals.
Also read: United legend fires at Maguire: – Makes no sense
Comes with disclosure
But despite Manchester City playing Manchester United, Guardiola spent minimal time on tactical preparations for the match. It reveals Manchester City star Kevin de Bruyne.
– Before the match against United, Pep said «we do not know how they will play. We are waiting and watching ». And we stopped training after about ten minutes, he says in the Dutch podcast Mid Mid, according to the Daily Mail.
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Before the big game, it was uncertain whether Manchester United would play with five players in the defense, or four.
In the 3-0 victory over Tottenham, Solskjær chose to play with five players behind, while in the match against Atalanta, the Norwegian changed to four behind when Raphael Varane had to leave the field with an injury.
– Pep often knows how the opponent will play. This time he did not know, so he did not know what to do, says de Bruyne, and continues:
– We did as we always do, but he did not know in advance if they came to play with five behind, a diamond in midfield, or with three players at the top.
Also read: Rio Ferdinand has changed his mind about Solskjærs United
Not the first time
Solskjær eventually chose to play with five players in defense, where Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelöf and Eric Bailly made up the midfield trio, and Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka played on the sides.
It ended as known with a disappointing loss for Manchester United and Solskjær.
Also read: The experts tease each other during Solskjær discussion
However, this is not the first time de Bruyne has revealed how little time City has spent on tactical preparations ahead of the game against Manchester United.
In January, Manchester City beat Solskjær’s men 3-1 in the semi-finals of the League Cup, and after the match, de Bruyne was asked how much time City had spent on tactical preparations prior to the match.
– We did 15 minutes today early. That’s probably it, he said then.
Club football currently has a break, and it is national team football that applies this week. Club football is back again next weekend. Then Manchester United will meet Watford on Saturday 20 November at 16.00.
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