Erik ten Hag finds unlikely Manchester United blueprint vs Man City

Gary Neville was impressed with the step-up in quality Manchester United made from an organisational standpoint in their defeat to Manchester City, though feels the team can still learn from their cross-city rivals and Liverpool.

Erik ten Hag's side raced into a first-half lead against expectations in Sunday's Manchester derby. Bruno Fernandes teed up Marcus Rashford outside the box, and the attacker unleashed a venomous strike that went in via the underside of the crossbar.

From that point the hosts began to dominate and in the second-half the blockade was breached. Phil Foden bagged a brace despite United's frustration with the equaliser, then Erling Haaland added a third to cap off a 3-1 win.

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The result leaves United adrift of the top four by 11 points, however Neville was far from downtrodden after taking in his former club's performance against their rivals. The former full-back reckons Ten Hag might have found a defensive blueprint, despite being on the receiving end of a derby defeat.

"That was the best defensively from a discipline point-of-view and a compactness point-of-view that I've seen them, actually probably in Erik ten Hag's whole period at Manchester United," he began to explain on Sky Sports' post-match show.

"I think in his perfect world they would be 20 or 30 yards further up the pitch playing as compact as that - they were really at the edge of their box. The problem they had for probably the last hour of the game was they couldn't get out."

Taking that assumption about Ten Hag, Neville further