This game has had the build-up of an old school world heavyweight title bout.
Manchester United v Manchester City, Jose Mourinho v Pep Guardiola, Zlatan seeking revenge against his old coach as two unbeaten teams, expected to challenge for the Premier League title, go head-to-head.
The two expected starting line-ups cost a combined £600m, with United breaking the world transfer record for Paul Pogba, and City splashing £47.5m on John Stones.
The game is reportedly on-course to be the most-watched game in the history of the English top flight – the current record is 901 million – and will be broadcast to 190 countries.
Yet, for all of the hype around the game, the global appeal of the fixture, and the world famous figures involved, the game could be decided by old fashioned English tactics of long balls, winning the physical battle and exploiting set-pieces.
According to James Ducker, the northern football correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, Jose Mourinho has instructed his team to “bully” City, and exploit their considerable physical advantages.
“The United manager’s request that his players optimise dead ball situations, invite fouls in City’s final third and deliver quality crosses, confident that they can hurt their opponents aerially, even if the Portuguese’s tactics will be cuter than simply an all-out long ball approach,” Ducker writes.
It would make perfect sense for Mourinho to deploy such tactics against City.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marouanne Fellaini, and Paul Pogba are all over 6’3, while City’s new goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, making his debut for the club, is just 6ft and will undoubtedly be tested with aerial balls and crosses.
Of City’s outfield players expected to start, only John Stones and Aleksandar Kolarov, a full-back playing in central-defence, are over 6ft.
While United have already had success through their attacking full-backs and early cross in the penalty area – as typified by Antonio Valencia’s floated pass into Ibrahimovic in the Community Shield against Leicester.
The standard of Valenica’s crossing in recent seasons appeared to drop-off considerably. The 31-year-old would often fail to beat his marker, and drill a pass back across the penalty area which would rarely pose a threat to the opposition.
However, Mourinho appears to be instructing Valencia to hit early crosses rather than attempt to beat his marker and reach the byline, with Ibrahimovic an obvious target and a considerable threat.
The Swedish striker out-jumped Wes Morgan in the Community Shield and Jose Fonte two weeks later (with Pogba also in the area attacking the ball). Zlatan will fancy his chances against Stones and Kolarov if provided with the service, after getting the better of two dominant Premier League central defenders with impressive goals already this season.
Luke Shaw is also a threat from full-back, and Mourinho spoke about how important the pair were to United’s win over Hull City in their final game before the international break.
He will hope to have both available after Shaw had an injury scare on England duty, and Valencia arrived back to Manchester late after playing in a World Cup qualifier for Ecuador.
Alan Shearer has also spoke this week about the importance of early crosses into the box for United.
The Match of the Day pundit highlighted that Mourinho’s side have made 53 crosses from open play in their three games this season, compared to just 29 under Louis van Gaal in the final three games of last season.
United’s crosses v Bournemouth (left graphic), v Southampton (centre graphic) and v Hull (right graphic). Via BBC Sport.Mourinho’s reported instructions of looking to win the physical battle, utilising their height advantage and looking to draw fouls and take advantage of set-plays make perfect sense in the context of the game.
It’s not really the famed “Manchester United way” but could be very effective against City, and Mourinho will be playing to the strengths of the players at his disposal.
