Harry Maguire has pinned the blame for Manchester United 's humbling derby defeat on their inability to retain possession in the second half.
The Red Devils captain delivered a frank verdict on Sunday's 4-1 loss away at Manchester City and admitted the squad is "devastated" by the damaging Premier League result.
City led for almost the entire match with Kevin De Bruyne opening the scoring in the fifth minute and restoring the advantage shortly after Jadon Sancho briefly brought United level.
Pep Guardiola's side put the game to bed in the second half as top goalscorer Riyad Mahrez struck in the 68th minute and in added time.
City had 70 per cent of possession at the Etihad and registered 24 shots compared to their visitors' five.
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Their dominance was reflected in their expected goals tally of 2.74 while United mustered a paltry 0.36, according to Understat.
Nonetheless, Maguire insists his side were still firmly in the game at half-time and were only undone by their sloppiness after the interval.
"We had good belief at half-time," the England international told MUTV. "We played the first half well, like I say, it was probably a 50-50 game in terms of both teams playing aggressive, both teams playing on the front foot.
"But the difference was, when we won the ball back off them in the first half, we were clean, we were good in transitions, we got on the counter-attack, we punished them a lot of times with finding good balls out wide and we kept the ball in their half.
"The second half comes and any time they put us under pressure we gave away the ball far too easily.
"It enabled them to control the game through possession and it made it difficult for ourselves to get up the pitch, and obviously they did what they do in terms of keeping the ball and they did that well in the second half.
"For me the most important thing is that we've got to look after the ball better."
Maguire's comments suggest he believes the scoreline did not reflect United's performance against City, at least regarding the first half.
However, the crushing defeat is the latest blow in a season littered with poor results which has left the 29-year-old and his leadership in the spotlight.
Concluding his post-match assessment, Maguire vowed United will be much improved when they host Tottenham on Saturday to ensure they "put a smile back" on their fans' faces.
