Manchester United players were accused of bringing shame on the club by giving up in the derby defeat at Etihad Stadium, with former captain Roy Keane adding up to six players should never represent them again.
Keane, working as a pundit for Sky Sports, took aim at Ralf Rangnick’s squad after Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez both scored twice, with Jadon Sancho replying. He said players were more interested in personal image than winning as United slipped out of the Champions League places.
United played without a striker and Rangnick also revealed that Edinson Cavani declared himself unfit despite training well for the three days before the defeat, which saw City pass the ball around their rivals for the final part of the match.
“Shameful. Really unacceptable,” said Keane. “It is a reflection of where the team and the club is. So far behind the other teams.
“The way we saw Manchester United, whatever is going on in the dressing room, and you hear noises all the time, you hear problems with the new manager coming in, but pride should kick in at some stage.
“I forgive mistakes but there were five or six players that should never play for Manchester United again. Shameful. Forgive the lack of quality because City are the champions but this is Manchester United in a derby match. They threw the towel in. City weren’t at their best. They toyed with them a bit.
“They gave up, shame on them. Subs coming on were not prepared to run around. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Fred. Rashford when he came on. I could go on.
“I don’t know who’s running that dressing room. Look at Maguire, he had a poor game, is he having battles with Ronaldo, captaincy and all these things?”
“Egos come into it, you leave egos at the front door, these guys are all about how am I looking? Are my boots nice? Is my hair looking good? Play the game! You’re at Man United, we’re looking at the fans behind the goal and they know, they’re not daft, this team we’re supporting have given up.”
United had pulled themselves level in the first half when Sancho scored a counter-attack goal, yet City pulled away after the interval and finished by humiliating their neighbours.
“They finished like an absolute shower. They were a disgrace in that last 25 minutes,” said former United full-back Gary Neville. They have given up. They are walking around the pitch. It’s nowhere near good enough.
“This is the first time Ralf Rangnick has come up against a proper team – and they’ve been given a proper doing.”
Rangnick was dealt a blow before the game as Cristiano Ronaldo could not train on Friday through injury. Luke Shaw and Raphael Varane missed out after testing positive for Covid, while Cavani trained last week but informed the medical department he was unfit.
“He trained well in the last three days but after that felt on Saturday afternoon he was not fit to play,” said Rangnick. “I cannot force a player to play if he thinks he is unavailable because of injury. What does it help if I tell you it is frustrating? If a player tells the doctor and the medical department that he cannot play, I have to accept it as the manager.”
Pep Guardiola says United’s plight since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, who was at the Etihad to watch the loss, can happen to any club but City are trying to build for a future where they can continue their success.
“The club is so stable in what they want to do, the way they want to play but the example we have to live is that United could not expect one decade ago the years of living without Premier League titles,” said the City manager.
“We have to learn. It could happen here too. Belief we are so good that it is not going to happen here what happened to United – it can happen, so quickly. I remember Milan winning Champions Leagues with [Arrigo] Sacchi and [Fabio] Capello, then years without playing in Europe. When I was a teenager, Arrigo Sacchi was the team all around the world we admire, and then this [decline] is what we have to avoid.”
Guardiola assessed his team’s second-half performance as close to footballing perfection. “Well, if the second half is not our best, I don’t know what we have to do,” he said. “I am so demanding then but I know my limits and my players’ limits and the second half was… I don’t think we conceded one shot on target. It was excellent.”
De Bruyne, meanwhile, hailed his team-mates to responding to Liverpool getting within three points of them with victory on Saturday. “They put the pressure on us by wining and we responded in a good way. We always play our football and fight for it, which is what we’re going to do until the end of the season,” he said.