OPINION: Jury out on Jose and Pep

It was a mixed day for the Manchester clubs on Sunday as both clubs prepare for the derby on Thursday against a backdrop of assessments for how their new managers have fared in their first season in charge.

Despite winning their first six games, Manchester City have stumbled in the league, and those early predictions of Pep Guardiola’s arrival heralding a new era of tactical super-genius appear to have been wide of the mark. Their defeat on Sunday—particularly given the identity of their opponents, and their manager—presented a new perspective in which to view a year of underachievement that is now probable to end with Guardiola not winning a trophy for the first time in his managerial career.

City have struggled, by and large, in the bigger games this season.

Nobody is doubting that a squad packed with the talent that they have up at the Etihad should be able to blow away the rest of the division but those early week fawnings over inverted full-backs seem rather embarrassing when presented against the rest of the season. Certainly at the very least Guardiola has failed to adapt to a stronger division; he has not been able to transform City into the imperious sides in the same way he was able to do at Barcelona and Bayern Munich when he also possessed the sides with the best squads in the league and just about the best resources.

At our most critical we can observe Guardiola’s influence as actually being quite negative—yesterday was the sort of occasion where in recent years they would stifle the life out of their opponent but alarmingly (especially given Guardiola’s reputation) they seemed to play without a proper midfield at Wembley. His risk over the goalkeeping situation can no longer be out with the jury; he made an error paying over the odds for Claudio Bravo.

That said, Guardiola did get the better of Thursday’s counterpart when the two sides met in the League earlier in the season. On that occasion Jose Mourinho knew his selection mistakes by half an hour in and it seemed as if he had learned from that when the two sides met in the League Cup.

Like Guardiola, Mourinho has been blessed with a blank chequebook to bring in who he likes and so he was expected to take part in a more serious title challenge. Curiously, though, given Mourinho’s own history, it seemed that the manager himself either underestimated the size of the job or maybe even underestimated the size of the club.

When Mourinho came to Old Trafford as a visiting manager he always came with the expectation of winning—and his record as an opponent in M16 is exceptional—so perhaps he wasn’t quite prepared for the current dilemma befalling his side. It has long been the case, going back as far as Alex Ferguson’s 1996 rant about Leeds United and probably even before then, that a visit to Old Trafford sees opponents raise their game to try and get a result. Of course, in recent years, many opponents have enjoyed the feeling of a positive result, which in turn inspires teams more.

Despite an unbeaten run which goes back to October, United fans have been largely uninspired by that home form though can see tangible signs of progress. In recent weeks, those turgid home draws with West Brom and Everton seem to have been forgotten thanks to convincing wins at Sunderland and Burnley which sandwiched the most impressive performance to date, against Chelsea (though it is no surprise, considering Chelsea came with a more positive game plan than most visitors).

Qualification for the top four seems a stretch because it is unlikely for six points from trips to City, Arsenal and Tottenham, let alone nine, and it is highly likely that Mourinho’s first season at United will be defined by the events of those big games and where that will leave his side in the table. Without a doubt, with the expenditure, it is reasonable to have expected a more concerted push for the title, but now the manager seems to have got to grips with the problems he has, signs look promising for next season. It will not stop critics from further afield but those closer to home feel positive.

If there is a reservation about the manager, it’s his willingness to publicly hang his players. Mkhitaryan, Martial, and Shaw are the three highest examples of players who have faced spells on the sidelines and while their return to form in their appearances back in the side points to a win for Jose’s man-management skills, there are some who remain unconvinced that the battle was necessary at all.

That will be something that only exposes itself over the long-term, as is the case of Marcus Rashford. Mourinho has spoken of the experience the young forward has gained alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic but again it will be a long-term reveal as-to just how true that is. It’s worth remembering that Rashford, despite his goal-laden introduction to life in the first team, wasn’t an out-and-out striker, and so perhaps expecting him to be clinical and take his chance on a permanent basis the way he seemed to against Chelsea and Anderlecht may be asking too much. On the other hand, maybe Mourinho has played it perfectly.

Either way, this Thursday is too soon to come to any conclusions over either manager, even if it’s fair to say the hosting one this week probably deserves a little more criticism than he has had and the visiting one maybe a little less. Too soon it may be, but there is no doubting that the result will have significant repercussions on both sides’ chances of Champions League qualification. It may not result in a great spectacle, but it will nonetheless be one of the most engrossing games of the season.

Follow Wayne Barton on Twitter @WayneSBarton

Wayne Barton is the football columnist for eirSport. He has been described by the Independent as ‘the leading writer on Manchester United’ after numerous books on the club and autobiographies.