Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag stubbornly stood by his contentious decision not to start Raphael Varane in their demoralising 3-0 defeat by Manchester City.
Ten Hag benched Varane in favour of the 35-year-old Jonny Evans but Erling Haaland scored twice and Phil Foden rounded off the scoring to inflict a fifth Premier League defeat on United in 10 games this season.
Evans and Harry Maguire, the starting centre halves under Claude Puel at Leicester City five years ago, were a mismatch against Premier League top scorer Haaland, who has scored as many goals – 11 – as United in the league this season.
Varane, 30, was instrumental in United’s only derby victory in their last six but he was unused and Ten Hag maintained the selection of Evans was vindicated.
“They played very well, I think, the centre,” Ten Hag explained. “With (Andre) Onana they played a very good game. Just what I expected.
“You know they will come pressures and no one can actually be surprised. I said it from the beginning, I need the players on the left side who can make angles and also to step in and, especially against City, with the side they press us you have to step in to get the press on them and I think they did this very well.”
Ten Hag bristled when he was asked to explain the tactical thinking behind Varane’s demotion. “I said it from the start that I was here and I just explained it to the question of Samuel (Luckhurst), so I have to explain again? Sorry, I said why.
“When you face City, they will go up to press and then to play with Rapha and Maguire over the left, that can give problems and then you end up only kicking long balls.
“He is for me, better on the right, Harry, especially against teams pressing high and second is you have to step in over that side and that was our tactic: to step in over (Julian) Alvarez and get Sofyan (Amrabat) higher to get press on their build-up and that’s why.”
United’s defeat to City marked another sobering day in a tumultuous season in which they have lost seven games and won seven games. United are now eight points off the top four in the Premier League.
“Yeah, of course it is disappointing,” Ten Hag acknowledged, “but last year we had many highlights and so far, not now.
“Of course when you lose a derby and in the way we lose is disappointing. First half, we had a very good gameplan and the execution was also very good and it was toe-to-toe first half, very similar. But then the penalty, of course, changed the moment.
“The second half we chose to become more offensive and 2-0 is too quickly. From that point on, it was a very difficult game.
“When you see first half, it is toe-to-toe and it’s just the penalty that changes the game. But even then we could have returned in the game with the shot of Scott McTominay just before half-time.
“From chances, it was very toe-to-toe and also in the previous games against them in FA Cup final and in January, it was very close, even the chances. So the probability we could win was there in all the games.
“We were losing and I decided to bring more offensive power in and then we made a mistake that was not according to the game plan, go up to the keeper at that moment. And then we got outplayed and the 2-0 is too quickly. It was a tough game, absolutely. The first half, don’t forget, was exactly how we have to play against them.”
Ten Hag declined to comment on the penalty incident that led to Haaland’s first goal.
