William Gallas has torn into Manchester United 's players after they were brought back down to earth in the Manchester derby on Sunday.
United had won their last four league matches to climb back into top-four contention, but City were a class above in their 6-3 victory. Phil Foden and Erling Haaland each scored two first-half goals to leave the visitors four behind at the break, and completed their hat-tricks in the second period while Erik ten Hag's side scored three goals of their own.
Former France internatonal Gallas has played in big derby games before, be it for Chelsea, Arsenal or Tottenham. And the 45-year-old explained what went wrong in a game which left Ten Hag's men eight points adrift of their neighbours.
"[United were] terrible," Gallas told Genting Casino . "You know, when you play a big derby, the first minute is very important. When you play away you need to be ready to go because you know the opponent will come at you straight away.
"You have to be ready to give 100%. When I watched the game, the Manchester United players were not strong enough.
"They couldn’t keep the ball. They couldn’t complete four passes. If you want to take anything from a game like this, you have to be better on the ball."
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Some of Ten Hag's team selection decisions came in for criticism, with Casemiro and Cristiano Ronaldo left out of the starting XI. However, Gallas still expected more from the visitors.
"City will always put you under pressure, but these players play for Manchester United, they have quality," he continued. "They should be able to keep the ball. I was surprised by their performance.
"They didn’t approach this game in the right way. They were not aggressive. This was a rude awakening for United and highlights just how far they are behind Manchester City.
"The TV cameras showed Sir Alex [Ferguson] and he looked very unhappy. It must have been very difficult for him to see his club perform like this. Players need to have the right attitude, the right spirit in a game like this and that was the big difference between the two sides."
Haaland's hat-trick saw him extend his lead at the top of the Premier League goalscoring charts. The Norwegian now has 14 goals to his name - twice as many as his nearest challenger, and more than all but nine players managed in all of last season.
"I said at the beginning of the season that he would be the top scorer and again he showed everybody just how good he is," Gallas added. "He fights for everything. He has players around him that can find him and he does the rest.
"When you look at him, you can see he has adapted very well to the way Manchester City play. It hasn’t been the other way around - people said that the team would have to change for him, no. City are City and he has fitted in perfectly. This makes a massive difference and you can see that he is everywhere."
