It is fair to say Jose Mourinho is one of the best coaches in modern football. It is also fair to say Mourinho is often guilty of over-thinking matters where Pep Guardiola is concerned.
Where Mourinho concentrated on Manchester City’s strengths ahead of this afternoon’s league encounter, Guardiola did the same. The Spaniard primed his defence for a battle, charged Fernandinho with sweeping up in midfield and unleashed his other five players.
All the tactical talk, before the game, was how United would use their height advantage over their diminutively lined up neighbours. City concentrated on exactly what Guardiola wanted – keeping possession and poking holes.
Mourinho is still tinkering with his best XI but, given a relatively healthy squad, he opted to leave some of his best ball players on the bench. Juan Mata, Ander Herrera and Morgan Schneiderlin watched from the bench. Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial cooled their jets beside them. Michael Carrick was in the stands.
Just before kick-off, imbued by four wins in a row, Mourinho sounded bolshie as he explained why he was going with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard as traditional wingers:
Jose Mourinho on why he went with Mkhitaryan and Lingard:
"We'll see if they bring their full-backs inside"#MUFCvsMCFC
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 10, 2016
So United went with two wide men and asked Marouane Fellaini and Paul Pogba to stem the flow. City’s fullbacks came inside, as Guardiola instructed, and the away side bossed the ball. It was a blue flood.
Pogba was not helping matters by going wandering and leaving Wayne Rooney to harry back and cover. 15 minutes in and 1-0 down, after a long ball, flick on and fine Kevin de Bruyne finish, and United started to tighten up.
It was a change of tack but, with so little ball to play with, United’s players seemed unsure as to who to mark or where to cover. City were not supposed to be so slick in possession.
By 30 minutes, Mourinho had seen enough. Herrera and Rashford were sent to warm up. They were on the sideline when Kelechi Iheanacho tapped home a rebound to make it 2-0. Mourinho persevered and United got one back before half-time. They should have been level, such was the meltdown Claudio Bravo was suffering in the City goal.
Jose has seen enough #MUFC #MCFC pic.twitter.com/78pIFjBVto
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 10, 2016
On came Herrera and Rashford at half-time. Within 50 seconds, the teenage striker had set up Zlatan Ibrahimovic. An equaliser was only denied by a last ditch tackle.
City needed to defend staunchly in the second 45 but they did damage on the counter-attack.
United looked miles better and an awful lot of that was down to Herrera. The Spanish midfielder has only started one game under Mourinho but did more to hurt City, and control United’s attacking tempo, in half a game than Pogba managed over the full 90.
He was alive to breaking balls, took men on, set up a shot on Bravo’s goal and just missed out on teeing up a Rashford for an equalising header. He got out wide and got into the box. He was a ball of energy but purposeful in possession.
Special mention to Ander Herrera. Added real energy and endeavour to the second half.. Tried to capitalise on Bravo being a tool. 👏👏
— Jake! (@JakeAGriff) September 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/Harry_Gibson_13/status/774621972047269888
https://twitter.com/_Alex_Carter/status/774619464184819712
Herrera faced the same problem under Louis van Gaal as he is currently experiencing under Mourinho – tidy player but not trusted in big games.
All he can do is what he did today – be brave, demand the ball and make stuff happen.
Mourinho has now lost eight times to Guardiola in 16 matches. He has won just three. He should have went with his best team today and Ander Herrera should have been in it.
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