Erik ten Hag needs at Manchester United what Pep Guardiola has got at Man City

In terms of pure results, Manchester United have timed their best run of form this season pretty well, allowing them to head into the Old Trafford derby against Manchester City claiming they have momentum and confidence behind them.

But those attributes are fickle bedfellows and they can leave your corner as quickly as they arrive. If United have a taxing opening 15 minutes against Pep Guardiola's side, they might find their belief to be wilting.

The problem is that confidence is coming about through results rather than anything else. If City struggle on derby day their confidence will remain, because it is rooted in a belief in what they are doing under Guardiola that has already been proven. Results will come and go, form might occasionally suffer, but they know the demands, they know the style and they know, over the long run, it will produce results.

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United's players don't have such luxuries to fall back on. The wins against Brentford, Sheffield United and FC Copenhagen were gritty, determined affairs, but in none of those games did Erik ten Hag's side play well.

In fact, after all of them, you left the stadium wondering what exactly United's plan was, other than winning by hook or by crook. This is a team that looks to have regressed to one of moments. Scott McTominay's divine intervention, Diogo Dalot's unlikely stunner, Andre Onana's rescue act.

It is perhaps too harsh to say United's goals are coming out of nowhere, but it is hard to discern too many attacks that are built through a clear philosophy at the moment. City - and Liverpool and Arsenal - have recognisable patterns of play,