{"id":1748,"date":"2016-06-30T07:38:06","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T07:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1748"},"modified":"2016-06-30T07:38:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T07:38:06","slug":"manchester-united-manchester-city-jose-mourinho-pep-guardiola-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1748","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United V Manchester City: Jose Mourinho\u2019s Mission Impossible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

W<\/span><\/p><\/div>

atching Manchester United play football under Jose Mourinho brings to mind a moment from the film Gladiator<\/a><\/em>, when Emperor Marcus Aurelius pulls his general aside and tells him, \u201cThere was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s a sentiment that would echo poignantly with Manchester United fans today.\n\nIt harks back to the fickle idea of playing \u201cManchester United football\u201d. The tempting thought of going back to the glory days when defenders would score last-gasp injury-time winners and the opposition would lose the match in the heat of tunnel enclosure, before it even began. It\u2019s that Utopian ideal, that impossible dream envisioned by legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson<\/a>, that Jose Mourinho, pragmatist to a fault, is expected to implement at Manchester United going forward.\n\nBut under Mourinho, the ominous aura that Manchester United once exuded has been replaced by steely grit, their swagger and dominance given way to street-smarts and doggedness, their flair abandoned in favour of cold, hard function. The carefree, all-out attack brand of football that characterised the club for decades past seems to have been forgotten in favour of a sure-footed one that sets them up for future success.\n\nIn a nutshell, Manchester United under Jose Mourinho have been exactly what they need to be to get back to winning ways, rather than striving to emulate the impossible ideal of what they used to be. These days, it\u2019s just hard to identify with vintage Manchester United anymore.\n\nAfter all, when Jose Mourinho took the reins of a club that had just about managed to arrest an alarming post-Ferguson era slump, he had one short-term remit on his job description: win at all costs.\n\nPerhaps it will take more time for him to come to terms with the larger picture then. Perhaps he has to do it brick by brick, laying solid foundations first before he can erect an architectural marvel. Or perhaps – like we witnessed of the Roman Empire that never really reclaimed its former glory once it fell – it may not happen at all.\n\nBut barring the shadow cast over Old Trafford by their noisy neighbours, Manchester City, who head into this weekend\u2019s derby showdown with a cushy eight-point gap over the rest of the competition, there is little else to suggest that progress is not being made.\n\nUnited are ahead of traditional rivals Chelsea and Arsenal, both in terms of points and goals scored. Their defensive record is the best in the league. The only caveat is that they are forced to play second fiddle to Manchester City, who are producing some of the most eye-catching – and successful – football in Europe this season.\n\nIn an ironic role-reversal, the former bridesmaid Manchester City has now become the bride. Pep Guardiola\u2019s men have stunned the Premier League with their scintillating attacking play, maybe even embodying the Manchester United ethos more than we\u2019d care to admit in the process.\n\n

Guardiola and Mourinho have faced off before in Spain, taking sides in one of football\u2019s greatest rivalries \u2013 Real Madrid vs Barcelona<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nStill, to Jose Mourinho, they represent little more than an opportunity to earn three more points. Or at least, that\u2019s what he keeps emphasising in those press conferences whose narrative he is so adept at controlling. But he, more than anyone, would understand the innate irony of the situation his team finds itself in this season.\n\nUnited teams of lore have often stalked down runaway league leaders in the past, cranking their football up a gear at the turn of the New Year, turning the heat up toward the business end of the season. This time, however, they grimly cling on to Manchester City\u2019s coattails, hoping against hope that Guardiola\u2019s men slip up significantly so United can capitalise.\n\nBut it\u2019s not for the want of prior experience that Jose Mourinho faces an uphill battle to catch up with them. Guardiola and he have faced off before in Spain, taking sides in one of football\u2019s greatest rivalries \u2013 Real Madrid vs Barcelona. Where Guardiola\u2019s Barcelona once seemed like an unstoppable juggernaut, Mourinho, with his machine-like efficiency, assembled a team that finally put a stop to Barcelona\u2019s runaway success.\n\nIt took Jose two seasons to get the job done, to undo Pep\u2019s seemingly invulnerable, all-conquering brand of football. Guardiola\u2019s team landed the first blow. Mourinho\u2019s team braced for impact, batted down the hatches, bided their time\u2026 but eventually had the last laugh. And the situation he finds himself in with Manchester United today isn\u2019t dissimilar to the managerial exchange they shared in Spain.\n\nThe rivalry between the two Manchester clubs is at an all time high – a dynamic only accentuated by the quality of football City is producing while United struggles to keep up with them. But to write off this Manchester United team prematurely just because of that would be nothing short of folly. History has an uncanny way of repeating itself and as we\u2019ve seen, Jose Mourinho has turned the tide against Pep Guardiola before.\n\nToday, Mourinho doesn\u2019t just have to contain the attacking genius of Guardiola, he has to also live up to the legacy left by Sir Alex. For Jose Mourinho is a man who has been tasked with the impossible job of rediscovering a Promised Land that slipped away silently, of carving out a future with a recent past as glorious as it is burdensome for reference… of rebuilding an empire the likes of which world football may never see again.\n\nFor that man, the only way to go would be step by step, to ensure that he absolutely gets the basics right before he pursues the glory of days past.\n\nEven Alex Ferguson took six years to win his first trophy at Manchester United, before following it up with a trophy-laden twenty.\n\nAfter all, Rome was hardly built in a day.\n\nAnd for Jose Mourinho, bullishly laying one brick over another, three points in tonight\u2019s derby would be as great a place as any to start.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an ironic role-reversal, the former bridesmaid Manchester City has now become the bride. Pep Guardiola\u2019s men have probably embodied the Manchester United ethos more than Jose Mourinho would care to admit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":183,"featured_media":1749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[3346,3412,3413,3414,3415,396,750,3416,3417,1190,3418,1191,3419,1192,3420,2509,353],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-alex-ferguson","tag-barcelona","tag-derby-match","tag-english-premier-league","tag-epl","tag-football","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-man-city","tag-man-u","tag-manchester-city","tag-manchester-derby","tag-manchester-united","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-premier-league","tag-real-madrid","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nManchester United V Manchester City: Jose Mourinho\u2019s Mission Impossible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In an ironic role-reversal, the former bridesmaid Manchester City has now become the bride. 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