I have a feeling Yaya Toure will get singled out again for playing poorly in Manchester City's crushing defeat by Manchester United but I actually feel sorry for the Ivorian.

The way they line up, you could put any player in City's midfield in a big game like Sunday's derby and they are going to struggle.

At times, United were out-numbering them four to two in the middle of the pitch.

That made it an impossible job for Toure and whoever is playing alongside him, and it has happened time and time again in City's big games this season.

The common denominator is 4-4-2, with Toure and either Fernandinho or Fernando in midfield.

Manuel Pellegrini keeps making the same mistake and it is City's system which is the problem - I don't think you can blame Toure.

'City's team fell apart, not an individual'

Sometimes when you watch Toure, his body language is not great and that is always something people pick up when they criticise his work rate.

But I know from experience that when you are continually getting outnumbered in midfield, you cannot do anything about it - it doesn't matter how hard you work.

Nobody was questioning Toure when City were on top in the first few minutes. It was their team that fell apart, not an individual.

The midfield was always going to be where the game would be won and lost. At first it was City who were on top.

Pellegrini sprang a bit of a surprise when he brought James Milner into the team, but instead of playing alongside Toure and Fernandinho, his job was to drop on to Michael Carrick and stop him from setting the rhythm of the game and dictating play for United.

It worked early on, when Sergio Aguero also dropped deep as well and found some brilliant positions to make things difficult for United's centre-backs.

Chris Smalling and Phil Jones both wanted to stay tight to Aguero so they were sucked out with him, leaving space for Jesus Navas and David Silva to run through inside. As a result, Navas had a great chance to score before Silva set up Aguero for his opener.

(BBC)