Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger hit out at Manchester United's failure to deal with Manchester City in the wide areas following their 6-3 humbling at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
United, who arrived at the Etihad on a run of four consecutive Premier League wins, were blown away by their cross-city rivals, finding themselves 4-0 down by half time.
City made it clear that they were going to try and target United's right-flank as a weakness, highlighted by Diogo Dalot being yellow carded inside the opening two minutes after bringing down Grealish. City also threatened down the right, with Phil Foden giving Tyrell Malacia the run-around.
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But in defence of United's starting full-backs, neither of them got a great deal of support from wingers Jadon Sancho and Antony in front of them. They rarely tracked back to try and help stop the attacking bombardment from the wide areas.
And for Wenger, the aforementioned duo did not do enough defensively to support their team-mates. He also questioned why Christian Eriksen appeared to be the man tasked with marking the formidable Erling Haaland prior to City's second goal, although Ten Hag later confirmed that was not part of the plan.
"What was, for me, in that first half unbelievable, it was that Manchester United had defended so badly on the flanks," said Wenger, speaking on beIN Sports at half time. "From the first minute, Dalot got a yellow card and Sancho and Antony didn't contribute defensively.
"In the whole half they were flooded on the flanks and they were always in trouble. After that, when they had the ball, I felt they were obsessed by respecting the game plan too much, wanting to go forward too quickly and losing so many balls and didn't have enough possession.
"But they didn't play for possession; they just wanted to get on the counter-attack. The only positive circumstances I must give them is that they conceded the second goal when [Raphael] Varane was out [off the pitch injured].
"When I saw that [Christian] Eriksen was marking Haaland, you had to worry for United. That's why I believe it is 4-0 and it could be much more in the second half, if they continue to play at that pace, Man City."
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