When Leeds travelled to Old Trafford on Sunday evening it was supposed to be a game that was full of crunching tackles and intense football.
This is a rivalry like none other, one between the white rose of Yorkshire and the red rose of Lancashire.
On this occasion, it was the red rose who came out on top in what was one of the biggest thrashings we’ve seen in the Premier League this season. In terms of a contest, it was all one-sided.
Scott McTominay set the tone with two goals in the first three minutes of the match and from that moment, United didn’t look back, eventually winning 6-2 courtesy of some truly abysmal defending from Leeds.
They allowed 26 shots on their goal, eight of which French stopper Illan Meslier was called into action for. However, he could do very little for the vast majority of the goals.
Without Diego Llorente or Robin Koch, we saw Luke Ayling fill in at centre-half again and their defensive woes have now grown larger after Liam Cooper came off with an injury.
What didn’t help either was the performance of left-back Gjanni Alioski.
The defender was in good form against Newcastle as he found the back of the net but he left a lot to be desired at Old Trafford last weekend.
In fact, he was pretty abysmal and his incompetent performance will have left Marcelo Bielsa fuming. Alioski’s defensive attributes have never been first class and he was given a horrendous afternoon by Dan James.
Alioski failed to win a single tackle and lost a massive 67% of his duels, prevailing in just two of the six he contested throughout the clash.
Clearly, the left side of Leeds was a huge weakness because Jack Harrison also lost possession a mammoth 24 times.
The North Macedonia international wasn’t great in that facet either, conceding the ball on 14 occasions and being dribbled past twice by the lightning-quick James.
Unfortunately, Alioski was also abject going forward, failing with both of the crosses he tried to deliver towards the Red Devils’ penalty area.
Overall this was a night to forget for the 28-year-old and he’ll have to improve quickly given the number of fitness concerns in Leeds’ backline.