“Before United, Pep said: ‘We don’t know how they are going to play.’ After 10 minutes we stopped training.”

Although the result did not end up reflecting the great superiority shown by Pep Guardiola’s pupils during the match (0-2), the truth is that Manchester City passed over its eternal rival in the Manchester derby. With the fear of reliving the historic defeat against Liverpool at Old Trafford, the Manchester United manager devised a more defensive game than against the Reds, but the plan produced the same result: a defeat. However, not even the painting Skyblue he knew for sure what his rival would propose.

“The day before a game we usually train tactically, based on how the opponent plays,” explained Kevin de Bruyne, Manchester City midfielder, on the podcast ‘MidMid‘. But the Belgian midfielder acknowledged what happened before that match: “Against United, Pep said: ‘We don’t know how they are going to play. We’ll see.’ And we stopped training after 10 minutes.”.

De Bruyne, who started against the Red Devils, admitted that “often Pep knows how the rival is going to play”, but this time “he did not know, so he did not know what to do”. And it is that the evolution of the Manchester United season has led Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, still a coach of the Mancunian team, to change both the idea and the game scheme on more than one occasion. “We have done the usual, but I did not know in advance if they were going to play with 5 behind. With four. With a diamond in the middle. With 3 ahead”.

Although the Old Trafford team has a star-studded squad, apt to adopt different schemes, it is the results that are taking their toll on the Norwegian coach, increasingly on the tightrope. While the chaos living on the shore Red Manchester United could have puzzled the reigning Premier League champion and Pep Guardiola’s approach, he ended up turning against Manchester United itself.