What Ryan Giggs Told Daniel James Before The Manchester Derby

Manchester City hosted Manchester United this weekend at the Etihad, giving birth to yet another classic Manchester derby.

City went into the fixture as favourites but were caught with their guard down as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s counter attacking system caused all kinds of problems to their makeshift backline.

Marcus Rashford made no mistake from the spot after being taken down in the penalty box by Bernardo Silva and Anthony Martial followed up with the second through a perfectly orchestrated counter attack.

Under 30 minutes, the Mancunians had settled the game. A late header from substitute Nicolas Otamendi did give the Skyblues some hope, but it ultimately turned out to be a mere consolation as the full-time whistle blew at the scoreline 2-1 in the favour of the home side.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof and Daniel James were among the top performers, along with the goalscorers.

However, rather than thriving off the confidence of his side’s win against Tottenham Hotspur earlier last week, James might’ve been motivated by fear. It was revealed by Ryan Giggs that he had jokingly threatened to not call the youngster up for international duty if United lose the derby.

The Wales manager told Premier League Productions: “I told him that if he doesn’t win today I’m not picking him!”

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The winger seemed to play for his life last night, running constantly and putting in a great shift. Clearly, Giggs had managed to motivate him a bit.

Further talking about how the triumph over City would affect the Red Devils in the future, the former United star said: “It’s huge, the confidence that it gives you that you can produce that performance. All big games you need that concentration and that’s what the players had today.

“They had that concentration defensively and when they won the ball back, making sure that pass forward was good, their touch was good and then players flying off and causing City big problems.

“I think we all know United’s record against the big teams when the big teams open up and we can expose them on the counter-attack,” the former Welsh international added.