Man City and Man Utd are in crisis – but only one club has an obvious solution to escape nightmare start
With both clubs suffering this season, Ruben Amorim faces a daunting task, yet Pep Guardiola, as Pete Hall outlines, has an obvious exit strategy to revitalise the champions
This is a crisis no epidemiologist could have foreseen. Manchester United’s ailments are well publicised, with their failures having gone on for some time. For Manchester City to go on an even worse run almost doesn’t seem real.
Football in Manchester is in crisis ahead of the first league meeting this season between its behemoth clubs on Sunday. Despite what each will tell you, both will be eyeing victory by capitalising on the dizzying decline the other is experiencing ahead of a season-defining festive period.
The only difference between Pep Guardiola and Ruben Amorim is one has an exit strategy that is quickly executable and the other, through no fault of his own, is going to have to get his hands rather dirty to bring about any lasting change.
The stats make for simply remarkable reading. Going into Sunday’s encounter, City have the lowest points total after 15 league games under Guardiola and lowest since 2010-11, while United, never afraid to trump any of their rivals’ failings, have slumped to their lowest points total after 15 games in their Premier League history and fewest at this juncture in 38 years.
Sunday will be also the first Premier League meeting with neither team in the top four since December 2020. Alarmingly, that clash four years ago was a rather underwhelming 0-0 draw.
The reasons why both find themselves in such a predicament are eerily similar. While Amorim is only a month into the new job and Guardiola has eight years under his belt in the City hotseat, City and United are both stuck in a state of flux.
Amorim needed to start again, fully aware he and his team would remain at ground zero for some time, with limping over the line against a vastly inferior Viktoria Plzen in front of 11,000 supporters in Thursday’s Europa League tie a stark reminder of how far they have fallen.
Amorim has already revamped his side’s formation, approach to the press and what he expects from his players across 90 minutes. The results will take time to present themselves.
City almost need to do the same thing. They have gone against what Guardiola has always professed to be one of the not-so-hidden secrets behind his success – never dwell on glory, keep refreshing the squad with new faces to keep that unrelenting intensity too hot to handle for opponents, regardless of how successful the previous incumbent has been.
Among many market-leading practices, in recent times City have been the benchmark for generating income from player sales. Often players who have never kicked a ball for the first team have found themselves sold to a La Liga side for £20m, under the radar.
This has helped City amass a substantial profit again this year, all of which puts them in a mightily strong position in the eyes of the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) overlords.
All their good work in revenue generation was undone in the summer, however, as instead of freshening the squad with multiple youthful additions, the decision to re-sign Ilkay Gundogan as the only midfield arrival left them looking aged and weary. The average age of their strongest XI worryingly edges nearer to 30 by the week.
Unlike the initial injection of cash under Sheikh Mansour’s City revolution, the money the club will have to spend in January – hundreds of millions – has been earned themselves through their impressive transfer business acumen.
January can be Guardiola’s salvation. While Txiki Begiristain’s imminent departure as director of football, with Hugo Viana waiting in the wings to take the reins, only adds to the transitional air around the Etihad campus, plans are still in the works to spend, spend, spend.
Amorim does not have that luxury. Years of profligacy in the transfer market, accentuated by predecessor Erik ten Hag’s penchant for signing former Ajax players for inflated fees, leaves United teetering on the precipice of PSR purgatory.
There is no money to spend. On new signings or even a Christmas party. Almost all the squad is up for sale, for the right price, to help boost the coffers. But who is going to pay big for out-of-form, disinterested stars?
If anything, the derby does come at a good time for Amorim, before City splash the cash once more. For now, uncertainty in both camps makes Sunday’s clash that bit more tantalising.
Manchester City v Manchester United kicks off at 4.30pm on Sunday, 15 December. Coverage on Sky Sports from 4pm
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