Untold money has been spent at the Etihad yet the squad remains reliant on an ageing midfielder with no deputyPep Guardiola’s failure to find a credible back-up for Fernandinho despite a £542.9m spend on players since taking over as Manchester City manager in 2016 is receiving heightened scrutiny. City have lost three times in four league games and significantly Fernandinho’s thigh problem forced him to miss the losses to Crystal Palace and Leicester. The player Guardiola believes could operate in any outfield position is in contention for Sunday’s trip to Southampton but he may not start.City’s slump has allowed Liverpool to take advantage at the top of the Premier League and without Fernandinho the fear is they may slip further...
All Mourinho’s instincts will be to kill the game but going for broke represents his best chance of another famous winWhen people said they wanted José Mourinho to make Manchester United more like Alex Ferguson’s treble winners, this, presumably, isn’t quite what they meant. The capacity to fight back, to score late goals and to win games that have seemed lost is undoubtedly a useful one, but it does raise major questions about how Mourinho should approach Sunday’s Manchester derby.Wednesday’s victory at Juventus was the third time in the last six games that United have found a winner in the final five minutes, but it was also the fifth time in those six matches that they had conceded the opening...
The gap between the two Manchester clubs appears to be growing but that may be more down to City having a clear plan for the future rather than who is in the dugoutIf it is the Manchester derby on Sunday then it must be time to wheel out the arguments about which is the better squad, who would get into a composite team of the city and so on, except as there are several excellent players at the Etihad finding it hard to get into the Manchester City first XI that particular exercise may turn out a little one-sided.In its place comes a debate about the differing qualities and approaches of the two old rivals managing the Manchester squads. Would...
Tottenham came unstuck when they pressed high at the Etihad last season but it was preferable to their timid performance against Manchester City at WembleyTottenham would press them, push high up the pitch, even from goal-kicks. They’d be aggressive and adventurous. They’d stop Manchester City playing out from the back. This would be a proper test of Pep Guardiola’s side. Related: The Pep commandments: how lessons learned at Bayern stymied Liverpool | Jonathan Wilson Related: Pep Guardiola admits he was wrong to call Spurs the ‘Harry Kane team’ Continue reading...
Pep Guardiola’s refusal to countenance a two-horse race for the title may have merit and other leagues look similarly openWhen Pep Guardiola was asked whether he thought the Premier League was turning into a two-horse race last week, before Manchester City’s trip to Liverpool, he shook his head and said no. There were still Chelsea and Arsenal to be considered, he explained, not to mention Tottenham and Manchester United.This was received at the time as diplomatic headline avoidance, with Guardiola smartly sidestepping the trap of writing off rivals’ chances so early in the season, though the odd suppressed snigger could be heard at the mention of Manchester United. Looking at the Premier League table after the last round of matches...