Roy Keane and Micah Richards both took aim at Manchester United 's hapless midfield in the aftermath of their 6-3 derby day humiliation.
Scott McTominay, Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes all produced limp performances for the Red Devils, allowing bitter rivals City to cut through them at will and ensure that Erling Haaland and Phil Foden each scored hat-tricks for Pep Guardiola 's side. And just like on the Etihad Stadium pitch, there was no hiding place for the under-par trio during Keane and Richards' scathing post-match analysis.
Looking at the half-dozen goals City tallied on Sunday, former Etihad defender Richards explained on Sky Sports : "The gameplan we thought they were a counter-attacking team, when [Kevin] De Bruyne got the ball deep, their midfielders were pressing leaving the space right in the middle of the park.
"Normally, Man United go deep and counter but in the middle of the park, they've tried to go man-versus-man and all it allowed was [Bernardo] Silva, De Bruyne, [Ilkay] Gundogan running forward, and it created that space for Haaland. It was very, very naive."
If that wasn't brutal enough, ex-United captain Keane laid into Erik ten Hag 's midfield on multiple occasions. "For all of City's quality, you still have to have a little bit of heart," the Irish pundit began. "We highlighted it, the first goal - it's five to 10 minutes into the game, it's not as if they've worn them out with their passing, it's early in the game, there's no aggression.
"You've got to close people down, if you drop off the quality of players Man City have you're in huge trouble. Haaland, Foden were brilliant but if they're getting service from De Bruyne and you're allowing them time and space, you're in trouble. Rightly so. It's brutal for Man United, when you're not quite at it you get hammered by your rivals.
"Brilliant for Man City, fabulous, two players getting interviewed - hat-tricks - but for Man United, again, they should be embarrassed," Keane affirmed. "They got overran in midfield, defensively all over the shop. No leadership, there was nothing there from Man United."
Richards followed up by reaffirming his point. "I said before the game the midfield would be the key area but United just couldn't deal with them," the 13-capped England international added. "Silva, De Bruyne, Gundogan ran the game, Foden running off the lines, Haaland running in behind as well, everything clicked."
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It seems that Eriksen was fully aware of the Red Devils' flaws, too, admitting in his post-match interview: "It came very heavy. Everyone feels it was a very bad day at the office. We started on the wrong foot. They had chances straight from kick-off. We can only blame ourselves.
"We missed a bit of courage to play out from the back and we let them be at their strength. The main focus from this game will be on ourselves. There are a lot of things we need to change and a lot of things we need to do better. Today was far from acceptable from what we should be doing."
