Jose Mourinho will have a full-strength Manchester United squad to choose from for Saturday’s derby with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
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It was Guardiola’s side who had drawn first blood as they stormed to a 2-0 lead within 35 minutes, courtesy of goals from Kevin de Bruyne and Kelechi Iheanacho.
But after a high-octane start between the two most expensive starting lineups ever assembled, City proved so dominant that United, playing at home, could barely hold onto the ball in the first half.
Mourinho opted to put Jesse lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in from the start.
Mourinho mixed things up for the second half, throwing on Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera and later Anthony Martial and taking a more direct approach in search of an equalizer, but City still looked more unsafe on the counter-attack and De Bruyne almost restored the two-goal cushion when he ran onto Leroy Sane’s pass and shot against the inside of the post.
Bravo looked a bag of nerves and almost presented United with an equaliser before halftime and when Mourinho sought a more positive approach from his side with a double substitution at halftime, youngster Marcus Rashford made an immediate impact.
After months of hype in Manchester – and well beyond -following the appointment of the two great managerial foes, it was Guardiola’s side who initially took complete control of a game that was being billed as one the whole world was watching. We speak through our players, through our games, not what we’re talking about here. We know they have so many options, so that for my players is more hard. Is it their fault?
However, the former Chelsea boss then appeared to do a u-turn and point the finger at himself, adding: “Therefore it is my fault, I am the manager and it was my fault because it was my choice”.
“We started the game badly”.
“I was lucky to be coach of some fantastic players and we won a lot of prizes because we won a lot of games and not just one game against Jose”.
“For the fans it is worth more than three points – for us we just have to maintain the same”.
But in a insane four-minute spell at the end of the first half – out of keeping with what had happened earlier – United could have overhauled City. He has given me confidence and I will give everything.
“The build up is for the process, travel with the ball together and one of the reasons is Claudio, but also the defenders, especially Otamendi”.
The Premier League kicks off this weekend with arguably the most important fixture of the season – the Manchester Derby.
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“The last meeting with Madrid (and) Barcelona was not easy”, Guardiola said, “but we met each other two or three weeks ago in the Premier League managers (meeting) and we spoke fluently, with Ronald Koeman, with Tony Pulis, so it was OK”.
