Erling Haaland and this Manchester City side are UNPLAYABLE. Erling Haaland scored his 3rd career Premier League hat-trick as City overwhelmed and destroyed their Manchester Derby rivals, Man United, 6-3 to keep pace with Arsenal at the top.
Where do I even begin with this game? It was nothing less than an absolute shellacking from the very first minute to the very last minute.
I normally would start out with saying how good Manchester City looked and how lethal Erling Haaland and Phil Foden, who also scored a hattrick, were. Yet, City didn’t really get out of second gear as, after only 45 minutes, this game was already over.
Foden and Haaland scored a pair of braces, respectively, to the joy and laughter of the City fans, while this United team looked like they had just been taken off the streets of Manchester and were contracted to play this game.
In truth, City should have been 7-0 at half time as De Bruyne and Bernado Silva had two chances (in the same sequence) blocked off the line, while Gundogan struck the post off a free kick.
Nonetheless, the goals City did score were simply brilliant. Foden’s second was probably the best of the bunch for me as only he, De Bruyne, and Haaland tore through 6 United defenders to whip in a low cross across United’s box, whizzing past three defenders’ legs, to find it a sliding Foden’s boot to make it 4-0.
Though, Haaland’s third, which made it 5-1 at the 63’ish minute mark, was also a great goal. Kevin De Bruyne once again found a pin perfect pass out onto the left flank to City’s new signing, LB Sergio Gomez, who rifled in a ball into the box that landed right on Haaland’s foot.
All the Norwegian had to do was make a good connection with it, which he sure did, to bury the ball past de Gea’s head.
Judging by how excited Haaland was after that goal (well, really every goal City scored today), I’m sure he was looking to avenge his father after Man Utd’s own Roy Keane ended his career nearly 20 years ago.
As for the game, City were good, but United were just so much worse.
For all of the good Manchester United have done for themselves with their wins over Arsenal, Leicester, Sheriff (in the Europa League), Southhampton, and Liverpool in the recent months, they have just flushed it all down the drain with this performance today.
Erik ten Hag said it best in his post-match press conference that this team has a “lack of belief” problem that has plagued it ever since Sir Alex Fergusen left nearly ten years ago.
Each new batch of players and squads have consistently (which is the only consistent thing they have done in this last decade) failed to live up to the high expectations of Manchester United’s past, which has caused them to get utterly battered in games such as this one today.
At this point, I’ve got no idea how to fix this team without blowing everything up. Aside from ten Hag and the new players acquired the last two summer windows, everyone needs to leave for this situation to get better.
And I mean EVERYONE.
The club hierarchy, members of the scouting department, medical staff, training staff, the social media team that puts out some of the most obnoxious and annoying Twitter posts possible, the CEO, the Director of Football, and the players that have languished and meandered from coach to coach. They all are the problem.
Spending $300M on players each window without a vision or a plan doesn’t work! I don’t know how many times one can fail and get humiliated in the transfer market, and on the pitch, before they realize that fact.
Furthermore, when you do spend so much money on these players, you have to play them in big games like this one.
Why was Casemiro and Ronaldo on the bench? Surely, they would have played better than McTominay and Rashford. And what about Bruno? What has happened to him?
He used to be able to pick out key killer passes while joining the attack to score 15-20 goals a season when he first came. Sure, he would miss a few passes, but he would always run back and contribute offensively.
Yet, now, he barley does anything while on offense, while his passes are consistently picked off and he lazily tracks back. He’s been uselessly these past few months.
Still, I can complain about this United team until I pound my keyboard keys into oblivion, but it won’t make a difference. United will continue to fail under the current structural organization.
As for City, this was an easy, run-of-the-mill game. They’ll have bigger tests against Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea to come this month.
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