My 3 Thoughts on Manchester City-Manchester United
Haaland and Foden hat tricks hand United another embarrassing defeat.
Man City rode dueling hat tricks by Erling Haaland and Phil Foden to thrash Man United 6-3 in the Manchester Derby on Sunday. Here are my three thoughts on the game:
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• How is City not leading the league? Haaland is on his way to becoming something we have never seen in a goal-scorer: A legit threat to have a hat trick every time out in the world’s best league, as he has now done in three consecutive Premier League home games. It’s not just about Haaland’s raw production, it’s about the different ways he scores. His second goal, off a gorgeous sliding strike at the end of a perfectly-weighted Kevin De Bruyne pass, made me think of Andre the Giant as a tap-dancer. Foden was a slithering menace as well, finding tiny pockets of space to deliver lethal scoring blows on three occasions. Honestly, it boggles my mind that this City team has dropped points to Newcastle (seventh place) and Aston Villa (14th place), both of them in games Haaland scored in. As good as Arsenal has been so far this season, crafting a one-point lead on City as it stands, I feel like City would absolutely thrash the Gunners if the two teams met.
• United took another big step backward. For the second time this season, United found itself down 4-0 at halftime and completely out of a game. It was perhaps a bit more understandable against City than it was against Brentford, but this was a domination from the opening whistle. After a week in which we saw Erik ten Hag and Marcus Rashford accept trophies for league manager and player of the month, United wasn’t a threat in this game and only scored its three goals once it was out of reach. United allowed itself to be sliced open by De Bruyne, Foden and Haaland, and it was strange not to see Casemiro chosen to provide some more resistance in the midfield. For all the money it has spent, United still doesn’t look like a top four team and has shown an alarming willingness to capitulate early when things start going poorly. Nor do I understand what Christian’s Ronaldo’s function on the team is at this point. Ten Hag has wisely chosen not to start Ronaldo in big games, but I feel like his presence detracts more than it adds even when he’s not used in games like this one.
• I can’t handle the mispronunciations of “Martínez” anymore. For all the obvious effort that NBC’s Peter Drury puts into sounding poetic during his game calls—efforts that are really appreciated—it blows my mind that he and Graeme Le Saux continue to butcher the pronunciation of the name Martínez, in this case Man United defender Lisandro Martínez. The audience for NBC Sports in the United States has millions and millions of Latinos, and the inability of NBC’s lead commentators to show a basic sign of respect and get an easy-to-pronounce name right is baffling. (The same applies when they mispronounce the last name of Raúl Jiménez, who’s only the best scorer for the most popular national team in the United States.) Hearing Drury do the game justice in so many other ways but then continually mispronounce Martínez would be like listening to Amanda Gorman recite a poem and suddenly start belching theatrically. Come on, man. You’re better than this.
What are your thoughts on the game? You can join the discussion in the comments below.
Grant, I’m glad you caught the name mispronunciation as well. For those of us who work in a context with a significant number of Latinos, saying someone’s name correctly is a sign of respect.
I watch it in Spanish with Andres Cantor much better then English commentators