Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof prove Manchester United right about Raphael Varane

The absence of Varane

The theory that Manchester United would miss Raphael Varane more than they miss Cristiano Ronaldo took less than five minutes to be proven at the Etihad.

United had started the game well but they were picked apart too easily for the opening goal. Bernardo got behind United's midfield, which was the cause of the problems, but as he linked with Joao Cancelo and Jack Grealish on the inside right channel there didn't seem to be too much danger.

But Victor Lindelof thought otherwise and raced out to add numbers to the situation. When Bernardo went past him and pulled the ball back United were left with just Harry Maguire and Alex Telles in the middle of the goal and Kevin de Bruyne made full use of the space available.

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It was the type of positional error that Varane hasn't been making this season and it feels like the communication in defence is better with the Frenchman as well.

Lindelof had a split second to make a decision for the second goal but committed himself in trying to shut down Phil Foden, making it too easy for City player to lift the ball over him and again take one of United's central defenders out of the game.

Maguire bore the brunt of the social media criticism and he had a pretty poor game, but he wasn't the weakest link in that back four, although in truth none of them looked particularly strong.

United without Varane have now lost 2-0 and 4-1 to City, 4-1 at Watford and 5-0 to Liverpool. They simply cannot be without him.

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