Will Early Manchester Derby Dampen Managerial Rivalry?

For a rivalry that has already gathered such importance in football history, and a match that has seemingly had months of build-up, it is somewhat ironic that the fireworks may be slightly dampened by time. 

Is it a little too early in the season, and far too early in the regimes of Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, for this Manchester derby to have the impact it should? It is not just the fact that this is actually the managers’ first properly competitive meeting in over four years, meaning there just hasn’t been the time or space for the old sparks to fly. It is also because we’re still in the first month of their first league seasons with these clubs, who evidently required such surgery before they even began. The extent of the transfer business both Manchester clubs did is testament to that. 

We’re obviously still a very long way off the peaks of performance and application that produced their most intense and epic games: the Champions League semi-final between Inter and Barcelona in the 2009/10 season, and then the Clasico late in 2010. But how long? At clubs where so many of the resources are there for both Mourinho and Guardiola to ultimately maximise their management, how close are they to their ideals? How close are they to their best teams? How much, more relevantly, can that this weekend feed into the kind of fireworks we would generally expect from one of their games? 

There have at least been encouraging short-term indications from both. One of the most conspicuous, from Guardiola, is just how much City have monopolised the ball. At Barcelona in that sensational 2010/11 season, the Catalan’s side hit an average rate of possession of 67.4%. In the time since then, however, the best in the Premier League has never gone above 58.8%. City’s current figure after just three games? An impressive 62.2%. 

So much for the argument Guardiola would not be able to keep ball in the same way in the Premier League, even if it is still so early in the season. The foundations of his philosophy are clearly in place. There is still some way to go to really make the best of it, though, as a few ragged touches and moments of slackness have already emphasised. 

There have been occasions when it has seemed that some of City’s players aren’t really at the top technical level to truly fulfil Guardiola’s requirements, with some of the full-backs making the odd heavy touch. That is further reflected in the fact their pass completion is 84.6%, compared to 89.6% with Barcelona in the 2010/11 campaign. City aren’t yet pressing in the same way either. They make just 15.7 tackles and 11.7 interceptions per game, compared to 18.5 and 18.2 at Barca. 

For all the perceptions from those famous semi-finals with the Catalans, meanwhile, Inter’s 2009/10 side were still much more willing to play the ball than often thought. They had a high rate of possession in Serie that season, at 54.5%. United aren’t quite up to that level, with 52.4%. What really marked Mourinho’s treble-winners apart, though, was their intensity in virtually everything they did. It was arguably the Portuguese’s most focused and finely honed team. That most thunderously came across in their full-blooded challenges, with Inter making 21.8 tackles per game and 19.7 interceptions. 

United’s more forgiving matches mean so far they haven’t required the same assuredness yet, but it's still a distinctive drop-off, at 17.3 and 13. They are peppering opposition goals much more than that Inter, though, at 17.3 shots per game compared to 16.5. Both managers then have already had considerably impressive impact so far, arguably more than can be fairly expected even allowing for the distinctive sophistication of their approaches, as is reflected by the fact they both have 100% records so far. 

Something is going to have to give this weekend, and it will likely come down to which team can give the performance closest to the manager’s ideal. After so much build-up, will one of them be ready to seize the day?

Who will come out on top in Saturday's Manchester Derby? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below