David Moyes admitted Manchester United were second best and that he had let his players know they were not “bang at it” following Sunday’s rout.
United have managed only seven points from their opening five games, their worst start since the 2004-05 campaign when they had six. That season they finished third, 18 points behind Chelsea.
Asked if he had given the players the first “hairdryer” of his tenure, Moyes said: “I don’t know, I think it’s just what I’d have done if I’d – I’ve been here [the Etihad] many times with Everton and don’t think I’ve suffered a defeat like this with Everton in my time. So I just told the players the way I would have told players at any other club if I don’t think they’re doing it. They’re good players, they’re good pros, they know when they’re bang at it and when they’re not.”
Moyes said he expected a reaction immediately afterwards in the changing room, on the training ground and in the next match: Liverpool’s visit to Old Trafford for Wednesday evening’s Capital One Cup tie.
“[I expect it from] all of them and I’ve made them aware of that,” he said. “If ever there was a group of players I’d expect that from it would be a group of Manchester United players. The way they have been brought up, the way they have been bred with the manager previously. They react, that’s what they do, and that’s what we’ll do here. We’ll make sure we react. Every manager has bad results. I’m no different.”
United were 4-0 behind after five minutes of the second half with two goals from Sergio Agüero and strikes by Yaya Touré and Samir Nasri. Wayne Rooney’s late free-kick proved only a consolation.
“I think we were second to things in the first half especially, we seemed to be a yard behind it and we just never really got to the pitch of the game right from the off which was disappointing,” said Moyes. “We had set out to do that. We had a good result in midweek to build on [a 4-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League] and come into this game but we never really quite got to grips with it. We certainly didn’t start the game well, Manchester City were the better team, they got control in the early part and we found it difficult to contain them. I thought as the first half edged on we started to get back into the game a little bit more but unfortunately lost the second goal right on half-time. I’m disappointed we didn’t perform because there was no reason.”
Nemanja Vidic described the reverse as “horrible”, admitting United were never in the contest. “From the first minute City tried to be aggressive and had more possession in the first 20 or 30 minutes,” the captain said. “We didn’t really get in the game from the first minute. This is what we have to try to learn from. We can’t look back. It’s horrible to lose the derby. It’s always horrible. It’s worse when you lose in this way, 4-0 down. We were never close to winning the game. That’s disappointing. We have to come back but from tomorrow we start to be positive and move on.”
The forward Robin van Persie had been ruled out with a groin problem, and Moyes indicated the injury was not serious. “I don’t think it’s that bad,” he said. “We felt he was going to make it but he just felt something in his groin. He’d actually done some training in the last couple of days but he just felt it when he made any sharp movements and didn’t want to aggravate it so we took that decision.”
Manuel Pellegrini described his side’s win as a telling psychological blow over the champions. “Winning against Manchester United is always big and the way we did it is important,” he said.
Vincent Kompany, his captain, said City’s motivation was superior. “Maybe the game meant a little bit more to us than for them. We were looking forward to this fixture. We need to win these kind of games. There was no reason why we should fear the opposition.”

This article titled “David Moyes struggles to find reasons for Manchester United’s display” was written by Jamie Jackson at the Etihad, for theguardian.com

© Guardian News & Media Limited 2014