'I'm giving praise to Man United for basically playing defensive - how times have changed'

Micah Richards has praised Manchester United for their performance against Manchester City despite the 3-1 loss - insisting Erik ten Hag's side had a "very good plan" against the Premier League champions.

United suffered their 11th defeat of the Premier League campaign at the Etihad after goals from Phil Foden (2) and Erling Haaland cancelled out Marcus Rashford's first-half stunner, leaving the Reds 11 points adrift of qualification for next season's Champions League.

Rashford's eighth-minute opener was the only shot on target United managed throughout the 90 minutes, compared to the eight Pep Guardiola's side mustered.

In the aftermath of Sunday's defeat, the pressure has continued to mount on Ten Hag less than two years into his reign at Old Trafford and this week Paul Scholes fuelled such speculation by admitting he doesn't think the Dutchman will be in the hot seat for the start of the 2024/2025 campaign.

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Former City defender-turned-pundit Richards however has defended the way Ten Hag's side set up at the Etihad and believes that on another day United could have walked away with a share of the spoils just as Chelsea did two weeks ago.

“I want to give a lot of credit to Man United first and foremost and a lot of people say, ‘Look at the stats’ and this is why sometimes I don't always like stats because you look at the stats and think Man City battered them and if you look at the overall game, they did in terms of quality," said Richards, speaking on the Rest is Football podcast.

“The last couple of weeks, a lot of people have questioned Man United and what