Error-prone Smalling exposed Manchester United’s big hole in defence in derby defeat

Centre-back's reckless action exposes the defence and how coach Louis Van Gaal conducted his transfer moves, writes Richard Jolly.

Referee Michael Oliver shows the red card to Manchester United’s Chris Smalling in their derby match against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium. Andrew Yates / Reuters

Success brings its own problems. Every setback seems more significant, simply because they are more rare.

There was a time when two consecutive defeats constituted a normal run for Manchester City. Not now. It became the worst week of manager Manuel Pellegrini’s career in England.

In bygone days, City restored normality by losing. Now it came with them defeating Manchester United.

Again.

For the first time since 1970, they have beaten them in four successive league games. There is a welcome familiarity to it all for the long-beleaguered blue half of Manchester.

“The most important thing is to win the derby,” Pellegrini said.

It helps to have a man who specialises in deciding them.

Wayne Rooney may hold the record for Manchester derby goals, but Sergio Aguero is the modern-day match-winner, scorer of four goals in his past three meetings with United.

The supreme opportunist struck for the reigning Premier League champions. United had the most expensive of the five Argentines on show, in Angel di Maria, but City boast the most prolific, in Aguero.

If there was something eminently predictable about the sight of him celebrating, City could savour the performance of another scourge of United. The sluggish imitation of Yaya Toure was gone, replaced by the rampaging version who excelled last season.

His laser-guided pass to Gael Clichy, leading to Aguero’s goal, was delightful.

He spent much of the second half embarking on barnstorming runs toward the United box. He offered reminders of the gifts that have made the Ivorian, along with Steven Gerrard, the most complete midfielder in England.

After the loss of a two-goal lead against CSKA Moscow and the defeats to West Ham and Newcastle, the outcome represented a return to form. The final whistle brought relief, too.

The match lent itself to different conclusions. City could conceivably have been given two penalties and United may have been reduced to nine men before half time.

They ended the match with a sense of relief that Joe Hart had denied Di Maria an equaliser. “He plays a role,” said United manager Louis van Gaal, attributing a failure to score to the City goalkeeper.

Yet while City possessed class acts in either penalty area, the determining factor may have been United’s weakest link, not their strongest.

Van Gaal said on Friday that United could not afford to go down to 10 men. Chris Smalling plainly had not heeded the warning. His sending off was the stuff of sheer idiocy.

“Stupid,” said an unsympathetic Van Gaal.

Smalling has cost United in Manchester derbies before. He was appalling in their 4-1 loss at the Etihad 13 months ago.

In April 2012, he was the culpable defender when City’s Vincent Kompany headed in the decider, a goal that swung the advantage in the title race City’s way.

With better marking from Smalling, the history of both clubs could be very different.

The past few years have offered a substantial dossier of evidence that Smalling lacks the attributes and the reliability required of a Manchester United centre-back. A subplot of the season has been whether Van Gaal will regret not moving for a dominant defender in last summer’s transfer window.

Ludicrously, United could have had both centre-backs dismissed in the first 45 minutes. Marcos Rojo was spared when, after bringing Toure down, referee Michael Oliver decided to curtail the first half. “Unbelievable,” Pellegrini said. “That is a penalty and a sending off.”

Instead, Rojo was stretchered off nine minutes into the second period, leaving United shorn of anyone remotely resembling a senior centre-back and City with an advantage that stretched beyond a numerical superiority.

And so it came down to a battle of teammates-turned-rivals, a private contest between two Atletico Madrid alumni, the quicksilver Aguero and the defiant David de Gea.

With his deft touch, darting movements and seamless changes of gear, Aguero showed the capacity to escape the attention of the United defence.

Defeating their goalkeeper was altogether more difficult. De Gea blocked three of the Argentine’s shots in the first quarter alone.

The City man’s eventual victory was no reflection on the United goalkeeper. He was dealt the weaker hand, not least by his colleagues. Smalling helped City secure a big win.

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