This Sunday at Etihad Stadium, an anticipated Premier League rivalry between Manchester City and Manchester United is to be seen where former teammates and friends like Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland will face off against each other to maintain their teams’ prominence.
From the manager’s point of view, Pep Guardiola will face one of his prominent assistants, Eric Ten Hag, who recently revealed that facing Haaland is way better than facing an entire Man City team.
Why did Ten Hag emphasize team performance ahead of the Manchester City vs Manchester United match?
Pep Guardiola is esteemed as the finest manager in the world, but Erik ten Hag is so adamant on his way that his Manchester United team will not create any mistakes on derby day at the Etihad as today is his first derby, and he intends to lead the Red Devils out with a strategy to impose their style of play on a City team that has been scoring goals like crazy so far this year. Needless to say, United fell flat at the Etihad Stadium, losing 4-1 in March, and lost the two derbies last season by an aggregate score of 6-1.
Erik ten Hag is so confident that Manchester United can clinch a victory against Manchester City in today’s derby, but he is adamant that they won’t concentrate all of their efforts on trying to thwart Erling Haaland, who was transferred to Manchester City from German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund in the offseason, and also responsible for 11 of his team’s 23 Premier League goals so far this season.
Haaland, the 22-year-old, will play against the Red Devils for the first time at the Etihad this Sunday and has adapted well to life in English football. On the other side, Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez, who have been instrumental in United’s recent mini-revival under Ten Hag, are set to oppose him, but the former Ajax manager would not be pushed on how to stop the powerful center-forward.
At his pre-game news conference, Ten Hag, who on Friday was crowned coach of the month for September, remarked, “We don’t play against Haaland; we play against Manchester City; they have a team, more than 11 players, but also we are convinced of our capabilities, and if we act as a team, in and out of possession, then you can beat such opponents.”
Ten Hag’s confidence typically evolves around his defenders, who are enthusiastic enough to face any type of opponent regardless of their heights and physiques. Speaking of height, Lisandro Martinez, a 5-foot 9-inch defender for United, can “handle” playing against bigger forwards like Haaland, according to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
Norwegian Erling Haaland, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall, is precisely seven inches taller than Martinez, the league’s smallest center defender from Argentina. However, the Argentine earlier silenced Haaland by neutralizing the Norwegian in Ajax’s 4-0 Champions League victory at home over Borussia Dortmund last October.
