The Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho dynamic has brought a whole new edge to the rivalry between Manchester City and Manchester United.
Once Manchester City revealed Guardiola would be their next manager, the prospect of Mourinho across town at Manchester United became all the more entertaining.
The recent Manchester derby enjoyed a huge build-up around Europe, unprecedented for an English domestic game, and there are countless articles on how each man is getting on with his role.
Spanihs newspaper Sport have come up with seven differences between the two men, the seven reasons why Manchester City would be doing better than Manchester United.
Sport are Catalan based, and so keen on Guardiola and not so keen on Mourinho, therefore they’ll be loving the current situation.
The differences Sport point out are:
Number of passes
Manchester City have currently made the most passes in the Premier League this season, and Mourinho’s men are only 9th in the table for passes made.
Protection of players
Sport reckon that Guardiola deals with this much differently, and cite Claudio Bravo as an example. The goalkeeper was poor on his debut, against Manchester United, but then got huge backing from his manager. The newspaper contrast this with Mourinho singling out Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Jesse Lingard, and Luke Shaw.
Management of the youth
Guardiola is said to be giving more opportunities to young players, not only in the team but also in training daily. That’s contrasted with Mourinho not really giving chances out to youth players, other than Rashford who was already an international anyway.
Distribution of minutes
Sport explain that Guardiola is spreading appearances and minutes among his squad more, and in their opinion this means he’s showing more faith in the players available.
The curious cases of Sterling and Depay
The Spanish newspaper say that whilst Guardiola has got Raheem Sterling playing his best football, Mourinho has managed no improved at all with Memphis Depay.
The decline of Wayne Rooney and the peak of Silva
David Silva and wayne Rooney are both 30 years of age, and it’s stated that whilst Guardiola has reinvigorated Silva, Mourinho doesn’t seem to know what to do with the England captain.
Press conferences
Last, and very much not least for Sport, is the attitude in terms of access to the clubs. Manchester City welcome reporters from everywhere into Guardiola’s press conferences, but apparently Mourinho doesn’t want foreign correspondents questioning him.
Whilst Sport do have some points in their comparisons, the newspaper are clearly taking a golden opportunity to get some digs in – 7 of them.
