Bernardo Silva explains how easily Man City picked apart Manchester United defence in derby

All the talk in the hour before kick-off of Sunday's Manchester derby was how Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans would cope against Erling Haaland.

Given Haaland got a brace and assist against Manchester United, that battle was particularly one-sided, but Bernardo Silva has revealed how Manchester City's main focus in their game plan was to exploit United's full-backs instead, knowing the mismatched defence would be unbalanced. United started with back-up Diogo Dalot at right-back and Victor Lindelof out of position at left-back, and City used that inexperience to their advantage.

"“Knowing their full-backs were going to be tight with Jack [Grealish] and Phil [Foden], making those moments – me and Julian [Alvarez] tried to give them the option of the pass in the pocket between full-back and centre-back," Bernardo explained, outlining how simple City's plan was.

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"But also if they followed us to come inside and shoot – it was definitely something we worked on and it worked today, we’re very happy how we dealt with the game and our energy in pressing, which we lacked a bit at Arsenal. To do that today was a key point.

"Slow build-up, attracting the opponent and then when we find the space in behind their midfielders, we attack quick. It really worked. The momentum that we created and the timings of the build-ups and attacking in the final third worked brilliantly."

Bernardo also explained how the timing of City's first and second goals enabled them to change to a more familiar, expansive approach, knowing that United had to attack more and change their own