Why Manchester United played a false nine vs Man City

Manchester United played with a false nine formation to try and match CIty numerically in midfield during their humbling at the Etihad.

Cristiano Ronaldo was unavailable with a hip flexor issue that sidelined him for two games in January and Edinson Cavani declared himself unavailable again with a groin problem, extending his absence to six games.

Rather than start Marcus Rashford through the middle, Rangnick opted to push Bruno Fernandes further forward in a strikerless formation, with Anthony Elanga and Jadon Sancho on the flanks and Paul Pogba also higher up.

Read more: United ratings vs City as two players dreadful

Pogba's presence in what appeared to be a front two at times paid off when he found Jadon Sancho to equalise in the 22nd minute. Pogba, similar to his performances in February, faded in the second-half and Rangnick introduced Rashford and Jesse Lingard in the 64th minute, four minutes before Riyad Mahrez effectively killed the contest to make it 3-1.

Rangnick refused to outright criticise the brittle Cavani, destined to leave in the summer, but stressed how limited United's attacking options were without their two specialist strikers.

"We didn’t have that many strikers available for the game today," Rangnick explained, "and for us, the question was do we play with Marcus to start with or do we play a false nine like Bruno and have one more midfielder on the pitch and make sure we win balls there and have enough players?

"It was clear they will always try to create numerical superiority in the middle of the pitch and that is why I decided to play with Bruno as a false nine."

Sign up to our United newsletter so you never miss an update from Old Trafford this season.

Catch up on all the latest Reds