Pep Guardiola says Manchester City planned to make Cristiano Ronaldo suffer by starving Manchester United of possession at Old Trafford.
City coasted to victory in Saturday’s derby as an own goal from Eric Bailly and an effort from close range by Bernardo Silva sealed a 2-0 win for the Premier League champions.
United looks far short of being able to compete with City as they registered just one shot on target all game, while Ronaldo had the fewest touches out of any player who started the match.
And Guardiola has revealed that City’s game plan was to control the game, meaning that United’s attempts to only play on the counter-attack would give limited opportunities for Ronaldo to be involved.
When asked about United’s tactical approach for their game against City, Guardiola replied: ‘Let me be gentle. I can never analyse or judge the opponents and what they have done.
‘The games have been quite similar in previous seasons when they beat us.
‘They wait behind and ambush us on counter attack – they did not control those games.
‘They waited, maybe because they respect us, which is a big compliment for us.
‘But we did a good game. Rodri was excellent as were [Ilkay] Gundogan and Bernardo [Silva], and we wanted the ball.
‘That’s the only way to control the transitions. I know how big talented players like Cristiano are, they suffer when they don’t have the ball. We wanted that.’
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