There was an amazing quote going around before the Manchester derby, said to be from the beautiful mind of Eric Cantona.
“On one side, my heart was, is, and will forever be beating for United. On the other side, there is this bald guy whose vision of total football gives me a f**king hard on.”
Man City are far better than United right now.
In terms of aesthetics and in terms of effect, their team is way superior in every aspect but the only real difference is that one manager tries to win games and, to do that, he actually thinks of a way to win games. Then he goes and does something even more jaw-dropping – he works to implement a strategy that he thinks will win him a game.
The other manager? He gathers together a pile of strong lads, tries to spoil the opposition and hopes the players he’s paid good money for will show why he’s paid good money for them by creating something from nothing he’s dreamt up.
Listen, there is no right way to play football. Anybody who talks about Manchester City playing football the right way should be given the very minimum of your attention because they’re only saying it in the first place after hearing it somewhere else.
City’s football is way more attractive to watch – it is beautiful at times and you do have to marvel that someone could not only compose such a symphony, but get a group of men to follow its every crescendo note-perfectly. It’s not the right way to play football though.
The right way to play football is the best way you can get results but the ultimate metric of how far Jose Mourinho, the ultimate pragmatist, has fallen, is that his methods are nowhere near as effective as or as efficient or as logical as Guardiola’s. If what United were doing made any sense – never mind garnered good results – no-one would, or could, give a monkeys how they were setting up. If they did, they’d only be whinging for the sake of being a purist but, in real life, they wouldn’t really have an argument to make.
The complaint isn’t that Mourinho is defensive. It’s that Mourinho isn’t going out with any plan to win a game. People shouldn’t criticise him if he’s boring but they should if he’s being stupid.
When you’re at a club like Manchester United and you have a team like Manchester United’s and you come with the reputation that Mourinho came with – and you come, no less, instead of Guardiola – the least you should bring with you is some idea of how you’re going to go about winning games. What he did on Sunday – what he does for all big games – is not acceptable.
It’s not anything.
And we’re not talking about West Brom trying to hold back the tide against an obviously better side in every department, we’re talking about one of the biggest clubs in the world with one of the best squads in the world at home in a game they simply had to win. But they didn’t even try to.
Mourinho has a blank cheque book at United, he’s had exactly as much time as Guardiola has had to work with City and he has some better players than what their neighbours have.
United have a better back five.
United have Martial and Rashford. They have the most expensive footballer in the world and they have depth.
You can talk about De Bruyne and Silva who are, no doubt, better than United’s midfield options but they are better because of the environment they’re in. Under Mourinho, De Bruyne would be played on the flank and he’d have his work rate and character questioned. Silva? He might get a slot on the right for winnable games but you’d imagine the manager would be terrified of using him too much. You see, you need people like Lukaku to defend set pieces.
United don’t show off their talents though because they’re so paranoid about the opposition’s strengths that they’re left constantly reacting. Martial and Rashford were just supporting full backs on Sunday. Lingard wasn’t really ever going to be used apart from closing down defenders and it was basically down to Lukaku to flick a ball to the flanks in the hope that United could launch a counter attack from deep – even though the way they set up always allowed City to have men behind the ball.
A manager who actually wanted to win the game would’ve had a midfield three that would play football too when they had the ball but, crucially, they would’ve had Rashford and Martial as part of a front three who, even more crucially, were allowed to be further forward than the play. That provides options. Opportunities.
In Mourinho’s world though, that provides risk. Even when he has a team like United’s.
There’s no big difference between the assets of both clubs but the two cultures are worlds apart. City’s players suit a manager who actually coaches them to suit him and his ideas even more. United’s players are good too but all Mourinho cares about is if they’re strong physically and mentally because, honestly, he seems to have no interest in devising a system or coaching a team.
He’s a cup manager who has won leagues by not losing games against title rivals – just throwing men behind the ball with no interest in winning – and he’s been in positions to buy such strong squads that they’ll go and collect enough points in the other games anyway.
This was a game against a title rival that they had to win though but, even eight points behind City at home with one of the biggest clubs in the world, Mourinho had absolutely no other idea what to do. They showed zero initiative – once again, it was just firefighting, getting by from minute to minute, hoping for Otamendi and Delph to cock up. That was the game plan – hope.
With the same amount of time, Guardiola has taken the two clubs lightyears apart. Mourinho will still have his supporters, he’ll still have his history but, looking at the difference in the two teams right now, it would be an absolute insult to United to suggest City are just better. It really would be a sign of how far they’ve fallen and how little Mourinho has done if fans were willing to accept that the club from across the city are just too good for them and there’s nothing they could’ve done about it.
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