3 Stupid Mistakes From Mourinho That Made Manchester United Lose The Derby – Sports – Nairaland

The much anticipated and awaited Manchester derby has come and gone. Plenty of talking points from the much one-sided Matchday 12 “Super Sunday” game. There was much fanfare as the home fans were delighted with a near perfect and brilliant display of attacking football by their team, Manchester City as goals from the diminutive trio of David Silva, Sergio Kun Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan was more than enough to seal an impressive win and 3points for the City side.

On the other hand, it was a lackluster and lackadaisical performance as usual for the visiting Manchester United side who traveled without their record signing Paul Pogba selected for the game due to some injury. Although Anthony Martial did score a parity goal, it was not enough to even share a point with Manchester city side as the intensity and purpose of play of the home side was on a different level entirely.

Here, I took a deep dive into the analysis of the “Super Sunday” Manchester derby and highlight the high profile mistake made by Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho that made them lose the derby to Manchester city.

1. Starting 3 central/defensive midfielders. No attack-minded midfielder
It is very evident that Jose Mourinho never learns or he is just plain stupid and adamant because there is no way he can justify selecting and starting the trio of defensive-minded midfielders in Nemanja Matic, Marouane Fellaini, and Ander Herrera together in the same game against an impressive attacking side like Pep Guardiola’s Manchester city. It is evident that Jose Mourinho switched into an huseyin kala ultra-defensive mode which he has been heavily criticized for all his career. With the absence of Paul Pogba who withdrew late before the game due to some injury, Mourinho should have gone for the attacking option of Juan Mata or even Fred who was impressive in his last game against Bournemouth, but No, Mourinho never learns.

2. Starting Jesse Lingard instead of Juan Mata
Like I have said before, Jose Mourinho never learns. I still do not understand why Jesse Lingard is getting a derby start ahead of the impressive, and inform creativity that is offered by Juan Mata. Juan Mata’s fantastic free-kick ignited a comeback against Juventus in the midweek’s UEFA Champions League game in Italy but No, Mourinho refused to start him (instead starts him from the bench) and plays an out-of-form and somewhat confused Jesse Lingard in his place. It was a really stupid mistake on Mourinho’s part not to have started Juan Mata over Jesse Lingard on Sunday as Juan Mata (and Anthony Martial) is Manchester United’s best attacking and creative options right now.

3. Not pressing high enough to get the ball back when they are not in possession
Manchester City made an impressive total of 643 passes while the visiting Manchester United side made a paltry 319 passes during the Manchester derby on Sunday. This is so because Manchester United did not press the home team high enough so as to get the ball back when they are not in possession thereby affording Pep Guardiola’s Manchester city side too much time on the ball and dictate thepace and style, and rhythm of the game.
In sharp contrast, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester city side pressed Manchester united high on the ball whenever they lost possession of the ball and always get the ball back quickly so as not to allow Manchester United players much time on the ball. Pep Guardiola’s strategy was to starve Manchester United of the ball, limit their creative chances with the ball, frustrate them from possession and it worked perfectly all thanks to Jose Mourinho’s stupid defensive mentality.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City team is not an unbeatable team especially when they do not have a certain Kevin De Bruyne, you just need to press them high on the ball, starve them of the ball (which is a tough and extremely difficult course of action) and attack, attack and attack them.