Manchester United interim coach Ralf Rangnick gave an honest assessment of his side’s heavy defeat against Manchester City on Sunday.
Kevin De Bruyne netted twice either side of Jadon Sancho’s leveller before two further goals from Riyad Mahrez after the break made it a convincing home win.
Despite a spirited first half performance with encouraging aspects, things fell apart badly for United after the break – when they had no meaningful attack nor efforts at goal.
Rangnick, who was appointed as United’s interim coach three months ago, did not shy away from the fact that his side were well short of the level of their city opponents.
United sit fifth in the Premier League after this weekend’s results, slipping behind Arsenal, while they are now a whopping 22 points off Pep Guardiola’s City.
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United are without a Premier League title since 2013 and despite having a host of absentees for Sunday’s derby match, the gap between them and the leading Premier League clubs is clear.
Rangnick explained after the match to Sky Sports if the performance showed the gap between the clubs: "In the second half it did but the first half was a competitive game.
"Everyone knows how good they are. They are one of the top teams in the world and there is a gap between the two teams."
Rangnick added that whilst there were positive aspects to United’s performance, there were more questions than answers for his side.
He added: "I think we played a good, if not decent first half. We were competitive. Difficult to concede an early goal. We came back, scored a brilliant goal ourselves then conceded another on the counter.
"It was a very difficult game against one of the best teams in the world. We conceded a fourth in the last minute of the game. It is a difficult game that shows we have a long way to go to close that gap.
"It was working. For us it was clear if we want a chance to win the game we have to do a lot of running. You have to be in attacking and hunting mode and we did that in the first half. The third goal killed us off in the end.
"It's difficult, if we attack them very high there is a lot of negative running you need to do. The third goal is a brilliantly taken corner and it is almost impossible to defend that. The second half they were the better team and they showed the quality they have. We struggled especially after they scored the third one."
Rangnick explained when asked when absentees Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani will return: "I don't know. I was hoping to have them available for this game.
"We have two important games coming up against Spurs and Atletico and we have to put our full focus on that."
Speaking on United slipping out of the top four: "We are fully aware we need to win games. This is one of the most difficult. It is accepting they were the better team today.
"But we look ahead to the next games and we need to win the next two home games - they are essential to us."
United are now a point off Arsenal in the race of an automatic Champions League qualification spot, while the Gunners have three games in hand in that battle.
