Manchester United were beaten for the first time this season on Saturday and, in truth, the 2-1 reverse against Manchester City could have been a lot worse for the Red Devils.
Jose Mourinho's men were outplayed on their own pitch for much of the Old Trafford encounter and their first-half performance, in particular, left a lot to be desired as Pep Guardiola's men threatened to run riot at times.
Everyone from their own fans, media pundits, former players and even Mourinho himself admitted United were sub-par in the opening exchanges. Now, one member of the playing squad has summed up the team's disjointed first-half display using just one damning word.
The comment comes at the end of an article in the Manchester Evening News detailing how Jose Mourinho has won around the United squad by implementing more player-friendly rules.
"United squad members have also raved about the impacts of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba, whose personalities have brought a more bullish mood to the dressing room," M.E.N.'s Samuel Luckhurst explained.
"One United player did, however, describe Saturday's first 40 minutes against City as 's***'."
Fair assessment
Although the quoted player remains anonymous, it is probably a pretty safe bet to assume he wasn't the only one to come to that conclusion over the weekend.
The four letter expletive was probably banded about thousands of times in the first half of Saturday's crunch derby game as the Red Devils struggled to contain Guardiola's free-flowing City side.
And, even with Zlatan Ibrahimovic pulling a goal back for United - who had fallen two goals down fairly early on - in the final minutes of the first-half, we wouldn't bet against it being the most common word used in the home dressing room too.
Although they put up more of a fight in the second 45 minutes, the damage had already been done in the first period on Saturday afternoon, and the Red Devils now find themselves three points behind City in the Premier League standings.
Mourinho will be looking for an immediate response from his players and Thursday's Europa League tie against Feyenoord represents their first opportunity to prove they have put a difficult game behind them.
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