United had a host of first-team players unavailable for the Manchester derby.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling were among those absent for the Premier League showdown.
But even with Marouane Fellaini’s red card for a head-butt on Sergio Aguero, United maintained their unbeaten league run dating back to October.
GETTY
Jose Mourinho's Manchester United had to settle for a point against rivals Manchester City
We had to make a decision to play for the draw and had to fight hard to take a point
Jose Mourinho
Mourinho had plans to attack but admitted restraining City became a priority.
"We wanted to do more in terms of attacking and to explore more of the counter attack,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.
“In the first half we had good control but the second became more difficult.
"We had to make a decision to play for the draw and had to fight hard to take a point.
"They started strong, pushed hard and I promised not to speak about players who weren't playing so I won't but we just didn't have the quality of players in midfield - we were missing quality there.
"In the first half, we were always dangerous and there were points where our movement could have been the start of something important but we lost too many balls."
United stay fifth a point behind City, but are now just two points off third-placed Liverpool with a game in hand.
Up next is a visit from Swansea on Sunday (12pm).
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