Manchester United were expected to fight tooth and nail against an out-of-form Manchester City in their Manchester derby on Sunday. In the end, it turned out to be the complete opposite.
The Red Devils succumbed to a hapless 0-3 defeat at the Etihad, with Pep Guardiola’s side easing to a win despite not playing particularly well.
Ruben Amorim’s inexplicable decision to adopt a safety-first approach when the hosts were there for the taking backfired spectacularly, thereby heaping more pressure on the head coach.
Very few of the players can hold their head high after the dismal result, and unfortunately, the usually-reliable Leny Yoro endured a game to forget.
Yoro had a game to forget
He was at fault for City’s second, getting rolled easily by Jeremy Doku, who passed it inside the box for Erling Haaland to score.
The 6ft 3in centre-back got physically bullied by the 5ft 8in winger, and looking back at the highlights, the 19-year-old will be kicking himself for his positioning.
He did not cover himself in glory for the first either. Luke Shaw was to blame for allowing Doku to breeze past him, but instead of marking Phil Foden, the Frenchman was caught in no man’s land.
And the City star headed the ball into the goal under no pressure whatsoever when the wonderkid should have tried to aggressively go to win the header inside the box.
Yoro’s worst-ever game in a United shirt
In the 62 minutes he was on the pitch, the defender completed 0 tackles, while losing all four of his duels (both ground and aerial).
He also committed two fouls, while getting dribbled past once and Amorim rightly hooked him early on. He was handed the lowest score (5.8) by Sofascore among United’s defenders.
This was easily the former Lille star’s worst game in a United shirt, and unluckily for him, it came in the Manchester derby.
Leny Yoro will need to dust himself down, and get this out of his system quickly with another huge game against Chelsea up next.
Feature image Carl Recine via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
