No way you could have watched that game and thought that a great manager played a role in anything. We could have been a goal down inside the first few minutes and it could very well turn into another whooping.
Goal down in the first few mins is irrelevant to the discussion, it can happen to great managers too, so put it aside. It was a bit of a lucky chance with how the ball bounced if I remember correctly.
Their CBs walked around entire game with zero pressure. There was even a play where Rudiger almost dribbled into our box without anyone pressing him.
CB bombing forward is the exception and teams use that to cause chaos. By that logic, Maguire running forward against a set defense is some sort of tactical failing by the opposing team, it's just not.
We should focus on standard situations. What happened on goal kicks, what happened on transitions to defense and what happened on build ups.
Build ups: During Ole, we tried quite a bit to build out from the back leading to situations like Maguire getting caught on the ball, Pool targeting Shaw last year to force turnovers etc. We went direct quite quickly which is basically Ragnick ball.
Goal kicks: We were extremely high up 6-7 people in their half
Offense -> Defense: We pressed like a reasonably competent team. Against City / Pool, they always made an extra man and it looked as if the whole team was half a step behind the opposition. Left wide open spaces (sp on the LW / our RB) to counter attack as well when we pressed. You could see some evidence of players angling their runs, trying to use cover shadows etc. but it's far cry from what a good pressing team can do.
Team selections: Ronaldo dropped, 4-4-2 Diamond with Bruno as false 9 which we haven't played in ages. AFAIK we played that only once or twice before in 2019.