If Jose were managing this City team...

People say it's nothing to do with the manager, and that everyone would be successful with the embarrassment of riches City have. What I will say is, there's no way Jose would have City playing the way they are had he been in charged. He'd most likely have not bought the same type of players.

That's not to say Jose wouldn't have been successful. There's more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. Jose, whilst not similar in style to Pep, has still won trophies using his style. However, we know that Mourinho favours a more physical side, whereas Pep looks at the technical side.

Just take a look at the two midfield yesterday, and as I said, there's nothing wrong with it, but it just shows what styles they prefer.

Jose's Midfield

Matic Fellaini Herrera

Pep's Midfield

Silva Fernandinho Silva

Think had Pep been in charge of our team, with the current set of midfielders we have a disposal, we'd have seen something like:

Mata Fred Pogba


Think Pereira, Lingard and Herrera would have largely featured in midfield too.

Problem is, Mourinho's never going to play that way. Never has and never will. As I said in another thread, Van Gaal was the closest we had to that, in regards to how he played his midfield with two attacking midfielders and a holder.

Going forward, we need to get a manager who has fresh, modern ideas. That's not saying we need to keep the ball better than City, but we need to find a way to compete because yesterday was embarrassing.
 
Tom Van Persie said:
God, you Mourinho haters are relentless. :lol:
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I forgot Fellaini :lol: to hoof upto when all else fails .
Pep is simply better. It's the truth but the truth hurts. His tactics are better and his transfer targets suit his play style.
Jose style is outdated and out of touch. No amount of money would be enough for him to win the PL because the type of player he looks for to build his team around are too limited. Although he might have had more success at getting his clean sheet yesterday who knows? :lol:
Favors physicality over technical quality
Experience over youth
And so on..
 
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Nobody doubts Peps a good manager, in the absolute perfect situation he can do great things. As long as he has the richest side and the best players in that league he can break records. Give him one of the two best players of a generation and he will even win the Champions League, making United look an awful lot like we did yesterday in the process.

In those circumstances, he's brilliant. Start to take away elements of that and well, you get his first season at City. The sole time he didn't have everything perfectly and he stumbles.

Put Pep in charge of any other Premier League side and he gets nowhere near 100 points. His football with a squad which isn't the best by a distance doesn't dominate games and he becomes just another good manager battling it with the other good managers.

Put Jose in the same situation and he's also unstoppable, at least for the short term, much like Pep has been so far. But Jose can also battle it out. We've all seen it. Just as wevew seen him struggle. There's a reason Jose's never adapted his style and it's because until right now, right at this moment, he's not had to. He's always won with his style but maybe now, he needs to adapt. Great managers tend to find that one day, they need to evolve, Sir Alex certain did in 2005 and it took him a couple of years to do so. He adapted again in his final few years, becoming quite pragmatic in his approach. One day, Pep will have to adapt as well. We will see how he does. Short of going to PSG where else will he have a club with such a huge advantage over the others?
 
WensleyMU said:
Nobody doubts Peps a good manager, in the absolute perfect situation he can do great things. As long as he has the richest side and the best players in that league he can break records. Give him one of the two best players of a generation and he will even win the Champions League, making United look an awful lot like we did yesterday in the process.

In those circumstances, he's brilliant. Start to take away elements of that and well, you get his first season at City. The sole time he didn't have everything perfectly and he stumbles.

Put Pep in charge of any other Premier League side and he gets nowhere near 100 points. His football with a squad which isn't the best by a distance doesn't dominate games and he becomes just another good manager battling it with the other good managers.

Put Jose in the same situation and he's also unstoppable, at least for the short term, much like Pep has been so far. But Jose can also battle it out. We've all seen it. Just as wevew seen him struggle. There's a reason Jose's never adapted his style and it's because until right now, right at this moment, he's not had to. He's always won with his style but maybe now, he needs to adapt. Great managers tend to find that one day, they need to evolve, Sir Alex certain did in 2005 and it took him a couple of years to do so. He adapted again in his final few years, becoming quite pragmatic in his approach. One day, Pep will have to adapt as well. We will see how he does. Short of going to PSG where else will he have a club with such a huge advantage over the others?
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Why would Guardiola care all that much about fans' perception of his ability? I think his reputation is sky high where it matters, he could probably walk into any job he desires tomorrow if/when he decides to leave City. I don't feel he's going to be in a position of having to coach a "weaker" team anytime soon.
 
De Portago said:
Why would Guardiola care all that much about fans' perception of his ability? I think his reputation is sky high where it matters, he could probably walk into any job he desires tomorrow if/when he decides to leave City. I don't feel he's going to be in a position of having to coach a "weaker" team anytime soon.
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Unless he's off to PSG or maybe Juventus, then assuming he's not returning to any club he's been at, he's not going to have the richest club and best squad in the division, is he?
 
WensleyMU said:
Unless he's off to PSG or maybe Juventus, then assuming he's not returning to any club he's been at, he's not going to have the richest club and best squad in the division, is he?
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A stint at Juve, one at PSG, one at a national team (didn't he say he'd like to coach Brazil someday), that's basically 12 years covered if it works out. I somehow can't imagine Guardiola coaching until his seventies, wouldn't be surprised at all if he calls it quits in a not too distant future.
 
That midfield three was absolute madness when you're playing City. I'm no purist, I understand that the logic in putting in Fellaini and Matic to help the defence and boot a few of them. However, you then need a Fred or a Mata in there so we can actually get the ball to our front players.
 
Well for one you would of never seen a midfield 3 of the silvas and fernandinho. Which would remove a big majority of their creative ability. Probably would have removed mahrez and put a gundogan as a defensive winger. So your looking at a very different team and one that would look a lot worse.
 
Can't wait to see the "Jose Mourinho as the POTUS, would he win the trade war with this cabinet?" thread...
 
Gandalf Greyhame said:
Imagine if Jose were the manager of City this game, and having to watch it as a City fan.

Walker and Mendy sitting back deep to deal with the pace and guile of Martial and local lad Rashford. Laporte sticking to Lukaku/Sanchez to keep them from creating anything. Bernardo and David Silva trying to defend with Fernandinho, and getting destroyed by fans for not having the physical or mental attributes to deal with Matic and Herrera. Sterling being abused for being too flashy without any end product, resting in Shaw's pocket all game. Mahrez struggling to be half the player he was at Leicester, not even able to get past once-a-winger-handyman Ashley Young. Aguero isolated up front, making wrong decisions and judged to be over the hill. Ederson would be slaughtered for his cockiness and his lack of shot stopping. Stones looking like an expensive mistake, never overcoming his brainfarts from the Everton days. Kompany being brought on to defend a point, United score again, and Mourinho finally replaces Aguero with Jesus and hopes something will happen. It doesn't.

Martial would have that meek defence for breakfast, and Jose would come out in post match complaining about how he missed KDB and how he needs new defenders and a GK and a more physical midfield, and a winger who can cross. "They have a player like Pogba who can change games in an instant, and a world class keeper in De Gea. And we wanted Lukaku to replace the aging Aguero, but couldn't. We need better players."

City fans asking for Jose's head for not giving Foden a chance, and for letting Jadon Sancho leave. They'd be sick of City playing like cowards, ironically after the days when they had players who'd put in 100% effort but were mediocre. "Yeah, they're Man United and all, but you don't give them so much fecking respect." Now they have flashy expensive players who were tearing it up at previous clubs but now aren't doing basic things right. They'd miss the good old grafters like Milner and passionate leaders like Joe Hart, who was shit but would have at least given the team a kick up the backside when they were down 2-1 with 5 minutes to go and defending like cowards.
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Are you Martin Samuel by any chance?
 
This City side is incredibly well-drilled. They always look in sync with each other because their movements are practiced in training. Hard to imagine how they would perform under a coach who actively does not drill such things, like Mourinho.
 
'Killing two birds with one stone', I like it, though I like birds.
 
Jericholyte2 said:
I firmly believe José would have won the CL with this City team.

I’m not saying I want him at United, I do want him gone. I’m not defending his tactics, I’m not defending his selections, not defending his transfer policy.

The truth is though especially this summer the board haven’t backed him and, frankly he’s been proven right. Sourness’s argument is completely moot though, saying he has one of the most expensive squads is all well and good when the other team is even more expensive.

Guardiola being classed as this genius, likewise, is all well and good but it’s easy to be a genius at clubs that give you absolutely everything you want.

Guardiola the coach was on display in his first season, where he couldn’t get a tune out of them. 130m on fullbacks later, all is sunny. Still keep conceding goals, how about 55m for a keeper. STILL having issues in defence, here’s another 56m for another CB - great coaching.

Simply look at the 22 who started:

Ederson - 52m De Gea - 18m
Walker - 50m. Young - 18m
Laporte - 50m. Smalling - 12m
Stones - 50m. Lindelof - 34m
Mendy - 45m. Shaw - 28m
Fernandinho - 15m. Matic - 40m
D Silva - 28m. Herrera - 24m
B Silva - 43m. Fellaini - 28m
Mahrez - 60m. Lingard - Free
Sterling - 50m. Martial - 50m
Aguero - 38m. Rashford - Free

Pep inherited three of that 11, José inherited 9 of our 11.
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I wonder why Dalot, Bailly, Lukaku, Alexis Fred those who Mourinho spent almost 200M on didn't start

The truth is the Guardiola side will play better football

Players at Man Utd currently are playing below the level we knew them to be before Mourinho touched them. Players like Alexis, Pogba Matic, Lukaku, Rashford, Martial(till recently) are performing at levels below what we have seen them play while players like Sane, Sterling Bernardo Walker Stones KdB, Fernandinho are playing at a level higher than they used to do before Guardiola

2 seasons ago. Lukaku and Alexis were 2 of the top 3 scorers in the EPL. How will an attack that have these 2 proven goal scorers now struggle to score goals or get shots on target? Both of them were even benched for the derby
 
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iluvurmummy said:
Pep has developed or improved most of that city team. For all the talk if them having better squad than us, this aspect is overlooked and its weird.

Jose would not have built/developed that team in the first place for it to be a worthwhile question.
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Yep.

If you were to go back to 2016, before Pep/Mourinho joined City/United and said that in a few years United will have Pogba, Lukaku, Sanchez, Martial, Rashford, Mata while City will have KDB, Aguero, Sterling, Sane, Silva and Mahrez, those would've been judged to be pretty close to equal. The problem is Pep has improved players and has an actual system he has drilled into them, while Jose has regressed players and his only system seems to be sitting back and playing Pulis-ball to try to win big matches.
 
Ekeke said:
This is an amazing post.

You just compared teams with City and only 2 of the 10 players we've signed for £ during the Mourinho era were in the team. Thankyou for highlighting just how poorly we've spent our money with Mourinho in charge.
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LOL. Mourinho benched Lukaku, Sanchez, Bailly and Pogba was injured. That's 3 of his most expensive signings missing.
 
Jose wouldn't manage this sort of team cause he wouldnt put together this sort of team regardless of budget. They'd be stuck in the mire of watching the likes of Dier.
 
NJM78 said:
Moyes could win the title with this Man City squad.
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Silly statement at best. It’s pep’s work that has them playing the way they are. They are so well drilled and have a clear game plan and identity. 3 years into Jose’s tenure and our main identity is hoofball and parking the bus.

I think we all know which team is regressing and which one is progressing. Get Jose out.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Same goes other way around. Give Pep this United and lets see how will tiki taka work with Smalling, Jones, Young and Valencia in back 4. And with Fellaini on defensive midfielder. Plus Lingard on right wing.
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He would sell them and buy better ones, probably not as good as current City team but good enough to play his football.

Let not pretend Jose hasn't backed here, Bailly, Sanchez, Lukaku, Fred and I would count Mkhitaryan as well. That's half of a team, none of them started last Derby. Say what you will about our board but if Jose's signings performed to their expected level, Glazers would gladly invest more.
 
adexkola said:
Not sure what to bold in this post because every point is spot on. And it's baffling that people refuse to see this and think City/Guardiola just threw money at their problem.
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It is truly mind-boggling, if just throwing money on the issue is the solution then we don't need to have a manager at all, then City's dominance has everything to do with their owner and nothing with Guardiola.

BusbyMalone said:
The bold part in particular is something that i completely agree with. From the get-go you could see what they were trying to do. It was funny watching them at the time because they was failing badly at it, but you could see something there. Over time and with more coaching (and, of course, money spent) it started coming together. I'm not in the business of blowing smoke up his and City's arse, but it is what it is: great coaching.

That's my biggest criticism of Jose, is that we have no system. We have no style of play. That's why it's so hard to get behind him even when we win games, 'cause all the work we may done one week in winning that particular game, is completely forgotten about the next week because there's no system there which would lead to continuity. It's like the previous week never happened. We can never really build on anything.
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Yeah, you could even see the same with Liverpool, they had the identity from the get go under Klopp.

sullydnl said:
This is exactly right.
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Cheers.
 
They would be nowhere near the team they are currently, but then I doubt Mourinho would have bought most of the players City have just now. It would be just a rag tag band of underachievers, low on confidence and looking nothing like a real team.
 
If both switched jobs today, neither would be content with what they find. For Jose, not enough tall bastards at the back and in midfield; for Pep, despair at how no three players can string together five passes.
 
All this thread highlights is the importance of a proper transfer policy in the modern game.

Pep works with a DoF who clearly shares the same vision. He buys a lot of players sure, but his success rate with signings is extremely high. Almost every player he's bought at City has been exceptional and improved them.

Mourinho works with a businessman with no footballing experience and who does not share the same vision. He buys a lot of players and most of them either don't play or don't perform. Hardly any of them have improved us as a team.

Maybe Mourinho is dated in his tactical approach, but even if he is, we'd be doing significantly better had he spent all his money on the right players, like Pep has.
 
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LeftyBlaster said:
Silly statement at best. It’s pep’s work that has them playing the way they are. They are so well drilled and have a clear game plan and identity. 3 years into Jose’s tenure and our main identity is hoofball and parking the bus.

I think we all know which team is regressing and which one is progressing. Get Jose out.
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What is silly is how seriously you chose to take the statement. No one said Pep is not a great coach and I want Jose out as much as the next fan.
 
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