Every time I play a derby match I am left with the same feeling; Konami doesn't understand what makes them exciting. Konami's idea of 'excitement' is every challenge is a slide tackle and attacking mentality. No matter the rivals, no matter the quality of the teams, same strategy, same execution, every single match. And you know what? It's lazy. There's good to be found here in this game. There's fun to be had with the game. But cup matches and derby matches are a disgrace and they have been since I came back to PES 5 years ago.
The way the AI behaves and defends in derby matches only works because of the poor refereeing logic; I'll have a player slide through the back of my legs and he'll get a warning. I'll have blatantly late malicious challenges only receive a yellow card. You know what a ref's most concerned with in a match like this? Maintaining control of the match. If players are going into the back of players' legs with 2 feet, players are going to get sent off quick because the ref has to make it very clear to both teams that such behavior is not tolerated.
But that can't happen in PES because you'll have 5 red cards by half time.
Konami wanted these to be the most excited matches in the game. In reality, they've taken away from the experience. Let the football tell the story of the match and let it do so organically. You don't need to force things. You don't need to manufacture excite. Make a game that can do that on its own.
If there's anything that should be augmented in derby matches, it's the atmosphere. Turn the volume up on everything. If I'm at Anfield and McTominay cuts down Salah, I want to hear the hatred from the stadium. Derby matches are intense because of the atmosphere. Not because teams suddenly decide to break each others legs. It just doesn't make sense and it's not fun, especially in fixed cursor, getting injured every time I play Liverpool or City because PES decides that murderball is exciting football.
tldr, derby matches suck and i have no idea what konami was thinking with them