There is no greater test of a coach’s mettle or a team’s belief than a trip to Manchester City. That truism counts double in the case of Manchester United, for whom a trip across the city was invariably troublesome even when the neighbours were not so noisy. Forget the awkward timing of Der Spiegel’s impressive exposé, a blockbuster that bounced clean off the brass neck of a club that could not be less perturbed. As the saying goes better to be flayed as a sheep than a lamb.
The allegations contained in Der Spiegel’s four-part page turner change little for the team. The substance of the allegations were already known to the authorities, only the detail of how City cooked the FFP books is new. Football has largely adjusted to the idea of state-backed clubs cleaning up however distasteful rival clubs find it. Until the authorities, themselves guilty of hefty impropriety, find a way of sensibly policing the discrepancies in wealth and power football will rumble on towards whatever conclusion fate has in store.
What City must live with is a lack of affection for the beauty of their play. But they don’t appear overly discomfited by that. These are hard boiled men. The ownership is ruthless, their key lieutenants fearlessly loyal, the coach as driven and obsessive as he is innovative, and the players the best money can buy. That adds up to table-topping heft. City have have already hit Huddersfield and Southampton for six, Burnley and Cardiff for five, the latter away from home. Their goal difference is 10 better than their nearest rivals and they are nine points clear of United just 11 games in to the season.
Intrigue
We know how City will attack the 177th Manchester derby. The intrigue lies in how United respond. Old Trafford watchers sense a shift in momentum. They point to incremental performance gains over recent weeks, exemplified by the Champions League result at Juventus, a fortuitous victory, perhaps, but a win nonetheless. They perceive a more stable, even optimistic environment in what might be termed the post-Newcastle period. One newspaper on the morning of the Newcastle match dared to voice what many, even Mourinho, believed; that a point of separation between club and manager had been reached. Only the terms of the parting had to be agreed.
A month on the question is how much this perceived shift represents a substantial change in outlook and approach? Or under the pressure of needing a result in order not to fall further behind City, will Mourinho revert to type? After all the tepid display at home to Juventus followed the rousing recoveries against Newcastle and Chelsea. Will the bounceback victories since against Everton, Bournemouth and Juve represent something fundamental, a recognition that old methods are no longer applicable.
It was noticeable how much more aggressive United were in Turin and how in his post ear-cup analysis Mourinho outlined a vision for his team that saw them taking it to opponents in all weathers and circumstances, no matter how vaunted their reputations. In other words there would be no more parking of the bus, that desperate strategy so alien to the attacking traditions of United rolled out in too many big matches.
Balance
“We are a growing team, developing. We also players who do not have so much experience. We are still seeking the right balance. We have played against Chelsea and Juve away, the two best teams we have faced this season, and we played very well in both. Here lucky to in the last minute, at Chelsea unlucky not to win in last minute, but we played well. This is what we want. We want to play well, to go to every stadium, doesn’t matter the team, and we play.
“Then if If they are better than us they win, if they have more potential they win, if we make mistakes and we pay for them we lose, but I want the feeling that, doesn’t matter where we go, we go to compete. This is a feeling also that Manchester United supporters around the world want, switch on the television and they know we are going to compete. We will lose matches, today we could lose, but that feeling of we go to play to try to win.”
With these words Mourinho is essentially recycling the criticisms made against him and repackaging them as original thought. The sentiment expressed is all United fans ever wanted to hear. Have a bloody go. If that is not good enough, fair enough. But please, no more bloodless, passive retreats.
Meaningless
City have dropped points in only two games, at Wolves and Liverpool. Their only competitive defeat came at home to Lyon in the Champions League, a result so anomalous as to be meaningless. They have since won at Hoffenheim and put nine past Shakhtar Donetsk home and away to establish control of Group F.
Their haughty dismissal of the Financial Fair Play revelations is not only a measure of the power City wield but of the disdain they have for those that stand against them. They look across the city and see a playing field levelled, however questionable the methods. No more structural inequality beneath that big red thumb. The unanswerable clout that was once United’s is now ours. Get over it.
It is for the authorities to respond. What appetite UEFA might have for revisiting a case upon which they have already adjudicated is not yet known. Given the nature of the penalty easily absorbed first time around, you wonder what material impediment they might muster that would put a dent in City’s stride. In the meantime Pep Guardiola continues to harnesses City’s riches to devastating effect, inviting others to do what they can to stop them. Over to you, Jose.
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