Rocky Balboa lacing up his gloves as the mean and merciless Ivan Drogo awaits. David carefully searching for the right stone as Goliath menacingly watches on. Erik Ten Hag and a white board with eleven red pins planning to overcome a Blue Wave. Manchester United have certainly been cast in the stereotypical role of underdog as the FA Cup final against their bitter neighbours fast approaches, and their fans will be praying for a Hollywood ending of biblical proportions.

Manchester City have played thirty four games since football returned from the World Cup, winning twenty-six matches, drawing five and losing on just three occasions. It represents a run of form nothing short of imperious, with Real Madrid the latest club to fall victim to their unrelenting quality. Guardiola’s men made Ancelotti’s team look like boys at the Etihad as the Citizens progressed to the Champions League final with aplomb. A spirited, but ultimately substandard, Inter Milan team awaits. Another victim to inevitably add to the list and the prospect of the long-awaited European validation Guardiola has coveted since arriving in Manchester.

Domestically, Arsenal’s late season implosion has ensured City may not even need to win another match to claim a third successive Premier League title. They have not lost a league game in over one hundred days; an almost impossible standard to match. In a season as long and draining as this World Cup-impacted one, a squad with the expensively assembled depth of City’s has naturally outlasted its competitors. The validity of the means by which this selection of players was acquired is undeniably questionable; the quality of them is not. The pieces are slowly, but surely, falling into place for a potential treble. With Erik Ten Hag and his whiteboard the only meaningful obstacle left to overcome.

The 1998/99 season constitutes the competitive apex of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Old Trafford career. No other English side in history has been able to win the esteemed ‘Treble’, despite many false dawns. If Manchester City were able to achieve such an accolade it could prove decisive in legitimising the long-term sportswashing project that has come to dominate English football, particularly to younger fans. Billions of pounds have been invested into Manchester City (and Manchester in general) since the Abu Dhabi United Group acquired in the club in 2008, with a clear and coherent plan for exactly how the eye-watering sums should be spent. Imagine Goliath, but pumped full of expensive steroids and wearing the finest armour known to man. Good luck David.

The key to overcoming such a challenge for Manchester United is to readily accept the reality of the situation. United are the underdogs, embrace it. The notion of going toe-to-toe with this Manchester City team, in the dominant form they find themselves, borders on fantasy.

In the past month and half, Arsenal, Liverpool and Real Madrid have all attempted to engage with City from a position of footballing parity. Arteta, Klopp and Ancelotti refused to curtail their gameplans from the usual positions of strength they find themselves in. They attempted to meet Goliath in the middle of the battlefield and exchange blows directly. The results? A 4-1 loss for each of the English teams and a 4-0 loss for the Spanish. The games were hardly competitive affairs, more like expensive and grandiose training sessions. There was little for Ten Hag and his whiteboard to learn from here.

Rather, he must look towards the matches in which the unrelenting Blue Wave has displayed moments of weakness. Since the World Cup, City have lost three games – once to United themselves, once to Tottenham in the league, and once to Southampton in the Carabao Cup. In all three games, the respective managers standing across the dugout from Guardiola recognised the quality they were encountering and made necessary adjustments.

United and Southampton adopted similar set ups; choosing to buttress the midfield with an additional player, while moving their normal central midfielder (Christian Eriksen and James Ward-Prowse respectively) into the number ten role. The extra legs in midfield enabled the teams to track the sea of options Manchester City attack with more effectively. Spurs’ tactic deviated slightly, with their usual formation, a 3-4-3 system, instead relying on the forwards to drop into midfield when out of possession. The effect was the same however – congestion of the centre of the pitch paired with quick and decisive transitions.

It is not necessarily the style of football which Ten Hag would classify as his ideal. Speaking to Robin van Persie in a recent interview with BT Sport, the Dutch manager detailed how he has a ‘certain philosophy about how I want to see football…one thing is I want to play attacking, I want to play proactive.’ He went on to explain, however, the nature of management is adjusting between your ideal and the reality of your group of players.

‘It’s not about the way you want to play, but the players – they decide and they dictate the philosophy of how you play. You have to adapt, definitely.’

This adaptation process is paramount for overcoming City. While Ten Hag evidently values the technical ability of Diogo Dalot in the right-back position, this is the game for The Spider. Despite Ten Hag’s obvious preference for the Eriksen and Casemiro double pivot behind Bruno Fernandes due to that midfield’s quality on the ball, this is the game for Fred. Even though the Dutch manager has repeatedly stressed his admiration for Anthony Martial in the centre-forward position, valuing his hold up play and focal point abilities, this is the game for Marcus Rashford through the middle.

Wan-Bissaka has the ability to completely lockdown an opposition winger. In the current form of Jack Grealish, with his direct and powerful style of dribbling, Wan-Bissaka is a much more suitable countermeasure than Dalot. The calming and instructive presence of Raphaël Varane will be vital next to him, with the French defender thankfully returning from injury recently.

The definition of inconsistency should be removed from the dictionary and, in its place, a picture of Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos should be inserted instead. Fred drifts between an impression of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on a game-to-game basis, ranging from great to ghastly with seemingly zero indication of which version you will see.

The Fred who played against City earlier in the year, however, was fantastic. He man-marked Kevin De Bruyne out of the game off the ball while enabling fast counter-attacks on it. It was a quintessential underdog performance and a requisite for success on June 3^rd.

Further forward, Martial certainly fits the mould of what Ten Hag looks for in his ideal striker. Speaking earlier in the season, the Dutchman said:

‘…in my way of playing I like the type [of player] Antony Martial is, because he can hold the ball. He is a [also] a target, he can link up, but he can also run behind. He has speed, he can finish, and he has good pressure [presses well].’

Yet it is the pace and directness of Marcus Rashford which will give Guardiola restless nights. Manchester City’s antidote to speed is Kyle Walker. The defender, even in the unconventional system City have recently been playing, operates on the right-hand side of defence. He absolutely shutdown Vinícius Júnior in the Champions League match, with the worry being he may do the same to Rashford if Marcus lines up in his usual left-wing role. With the freedom to play through the middle, and position himself on the shoulder of City’s slower defenders, the threat of a viable counter attack increases. It also permits for a more defensively sound player (Bruno Fernandes for example) to operate on the left-hand side – someone who will track back much more diligently than Rashford.

Every conceivable effort must be made to make life uncomfortable for Manchester City. They can be given no time on the ball in advanced positions. Their penchant for creating overloads must be curtailed. The freedom with which their defenders operate cannot be allowed. The space they leave between defence and goalkeeper must be exploited.

While Ten Hag would certainly dream of a scenario in which these facets of City’s game could be countered by proactive football, this Manchester United squad are not currently there. They are in the infancy of their evolution; a transition from reactive to proactive football. But in a contest such as this, with the odds stacked firmly against them, United will have to revert to their reactive foundation, actively encouraged by a manager to betraying his ideals who embraces the role of the plucky underdog. David must recognise the (illegal) might of Goliath, and plan accordingly.

Darragh Fox