Patrice Evra believes Antony and Tyrell Malacia were given wake-up call over the weekend.
Manchester United's four-game Premier League winning streak screeched to a halt on Sunday as they were handed a 6-3 pasting at the hands of City in the derby. Erling Haaland and Phil Foden each grabbed hat-tricks and it was only Anthony Martial's late brace that prevented the scoreline from being even more embarrassing.
New signings Antony, Malacia and Lisandro Martinez started the match while Casemiro came off the bench. Evra believes the match was a real introduction to English football for the club's latest arrivals.
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"I absolutely agree with Ten Hag, there was no belief, this is the Premier League and I think for some new players like Malacia and Antony, they were having fun but I think after that game they are going to say: 'OK, this is not the Dutch league, this is the Premier League,'" he told Betfair. "It was a massive lack of belief, it was as if they said to City you are better than us.
"They didn't follow the plan, I'm sure Ten Hag had a plan like he had against Arsenal and Liverpool and I think they forgot everything because they were scared. It was like the plan went out of the window because they saw City and said 'those guys are monsters, they are not human beings.'"
However, it was a lack of fighting spirit from the whole team that really annoyed Evra. He continued: "Watching the game I was in shock because I didn't see that coming. After four wins in a row I was quite confident going into the derby, I was talking about United getting a draw.
"Before the match, I didn't say United would win the league, I didn't say we would beat City, but I didn't think City would humiliate us the way they did and that makes me worried for the future. United just watched City play. If you look at the first goal, I think some United players even wanted to clap City and congratulate them for their amazing football.
"I would never compare it to when we lost 6-1 to City, because we lost that game because we were attacking, Ferguson was upset with us for that but I told the boss that was the United way, to keep attacking no matter what and he agreed. On Sunday, I was really upset because I didn't see any fighting spirit from United, like what they showed against Liverpool and Arsenal. In those two matches they refused to lose, they refused to lose every challenge, but against City it was like they just wanted to watch them play because they are better than them."
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