Last night at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City beat Manchester United very comfortably with a 4-1 victory. It only took Pep Guardiola’s side five minutes to take the lead with Kevin De Bruyne scoring the first goal. At one point during Sunday’s Derby, the possession stood at 92% City and 8% to United!
United are having to face the consequences of losing last night’s game. losing those crucial points has resulted in Arsenal climbing up the table to take the Champions League qualifying 4th place for now. United now slip down to 5th place with West Ham only two points behind them.
United didn’t have much of a chance with most of their talented players not featuring in yesterday’s squad. Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani were absent due to their injuries. Defenders Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw were also missing after testing positive for Covid-19.
United’s star striker Ronaldo wasn’t present at the Etihad last night. The 37-year-old made his way to Portugal after it was made clear he would not be involved in the Manchester Derby. Ronaldo omitted from Ralf Rangnick’s squad due to complaining about his hip injury, the same injury that saw him miss two games in January. This injury also affected him at Juventus.
The Portuguese star has started Man United’s last five games since being named on the bench against Burnley last month. Rangnick implied that even if the Portuguese player was in the right shape to play, he wouldn’t have made the squad.
Ronaldo’s absence from the Derby has been questioned by many including ex-player and manager Roy Keane. Keane said: “There seems to be more to the Ronaldo story when a manager comes out and talks about a hip flexor. I don’t get it. We talk about Ronaldo being a machine and very rarely getting injured but every now and again he comes out with that… a hip flexor? It doesn’t add up to me.”
Even Ronaldo’s own sister liked an instagram post claiming the striker actually is not injured, he was just dropped by Rangnick for the game.
As part of the derby fallout, there have been rumours claiming that Marcus Rashford is seriously considering his United future due to his lack of playing time. Despite Ronaldo & Cavani not appearing in the squad, the 24 year old was only named on the bench.
Rashford’s form this season has not been what he would have hoped for. Combine that with the injury problems he endured at the beginning of the season and you can maybe understand why Rangnick shows a lack of trust in him. Rashford’s contract runs out at the end of June, 2023.
No one respect Ronaldo after Solskjaer left. Hence he is not keen to serve ManU. Moreover many of the young players including the captain are against Ronaldo, so it is their fault.
Only Alex knows how to motivate him and respect him