Zlatan Ibrahimovic Key to Manchester United Combating Pep Guardiola's City Press
As if the return of domestic football following another dreary international break wasn’t exciting enough, the first Manchester derby of the season—infused with rivalry from both a club and managerial perspective—awaits us with open arms. Oh yes.
The newly anointed “capital of football,” per the somewhat biased Patrick Vieira, will see the two Premier League title favourites clash, while lingering flames of bitterness between Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola will also be stoked. It’s the footballing equivalent of yin and yang, and the result could go a long way toward shaping the race for silverware.
It’s possible the Manchester derby has never been a more attractive global proposal. Red vs. blue, Mourinho vs. Pep, Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne...it has all the ingredients to be a firecracker set loose in the sky.
Manchester United
Mourinho has a couple of injury concerns to contend with ahead of this match, which isn’t ideal, but the good news for him is that both Marouane Fellaini and Luke Shaw should be fit, per the Manchester Evening News. The latter is the bigger concern but missed England duty against Slovakia in order to prepare for this game.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan limped away from Armenia international duty and is a serious doubt for the game, again per the Evening News, but would likely not have started the derby, as he has thus far failed to breach the starting XI. Still, it’s an electric option off the bench which may be removed from Jose’s arsenal.
That, combined with the fact that Anthony Martial’s iffy start to the season let up a little as he scored for France at the weekend, means he, Juan Mata and Wayne Rooney will likely retain their places behind Ibrahimovic in the advanced midfield line. Despite Marcus Rashford’s past derby heroics and his hat-trick for England’s under-21s in midweek, he may have to take a pew.
Manchester City
Kelechi Iheanacho says he’s ready to fill Sergio Aguero’s boots on derby day, and he’ll need to be at the very top of his game to replicate what the banned Argentine usually does. According to uMAXit Football’s Scott Patterson, he averages a goal against United every 89 minutes.
It could be that Nolito is preferred up top to Iheanacho, as the Spaniard is capable of filling in as a centre-forward, and with the fresh competition for midfield berths, that might actually be the route of choice for Guardiola.
According to the Guardian, Ilkay Gundogan is fit for the derby and could be in line to make his first appearance in a Manchester City shirt. It creates a real conundrum in midfield, as Fernandinho is playing well and both Silva and De Bruyne are seriously warming to their “free No. 8” roles. If Gundogan takes a place on the bench here, the conundrum will only be delayed until next week.
The same report noted that Nicolas Otamendi’s availability is a gargantuan question mark. He played for Argentina against Venezuela in the early hours of Wednesday morning and will have to return in a hurry. Vincent Kompany is in training, but there are fears over his “fragility,” while Aleksandar Kolarov may be fine at centre-back against Sunderland, but against United...
Pressure Point 1: Pressure on Pogba
Pogba’s short second stint at Manchester United so far has been quite straightforward: He displayed genuine excellence in a swashbuckling performance against Southampton, then took a more reserved role in a last-gasp victory over Hull City. United have yet to concede a goal with him in the side, and he’s forming a good partnership with Fellaini.
This game, though, will be his first actual test in a United shirt, and it could spark a return of the issues that plagued him during Euro 2016 with France.
Unless Mourinho switches shape to a 4-3-3 and allows Pogba to play as a No. 8, his defensive acumen is going to be under intense scrutiny on Saturday. The carefully constructed attacks City produce, utilising the central zones so well, are difficult to stop even for seasoned defensive midfielders.
For a player like Pogba, who has shown he is not that comfortable playing as a No. 6 against good sides, this represents an extremely stern examination.
During the summer, when paired with Blaise Matuidi as dual No. 6s in a 4-2-3-1, his discomfort in the role was laid bare. He’s used to having a shield behind him and doesn’t do the appropriate shoulder checks for runners, meaning there’s joy to be had for sly movers (enter Silva and De Bruyne), and he’s not as free to burst forward and slalom past markers.
If City’s last performance, against West Ham, is anything to go by, Silva and Co. will continue to work the centre of the pitch and attract numbers. This frees up the wide men for one-on-ones, allowing a ball out wide to stretch the formation, but the real danger comes when the ball is then turned back inside.
City created six extremely similar openings like this against the Hammers, and it’s the midfielders hovering or arriving late in the box that pose the biggest threat.
Southampton and Hull City weren’t able to test Pogba in these areas, as Dusan Tadic’s lack of mobility nullified him as a threat, and the Tigers’ own danger was posed by Robert Snodgrass from a wider position. City, though, with a hyped-up Raheem Sterling, an immaculate-looking Silva and an improving De Bruyne, could provide an early shock to the system.
Were Mourinho to switch to a 4-3-3 and introduce a designated holder to support Pogba, it would necessitate pushing Rooney wide (and therefore pushing one of Martial or Juan Mata from the XI), as the Portuguese has pledged never to play his captain in central midfield.
Pressure Point 2: Pressure vs. Out-Ball
Manchester United are about to face a coordinated pressing effort for the first time this season. Southampton did it in patches, Hull City sat off and Bournemouth were tamed with ease on the opening weekend, but City will present an energetic test.
A pressing strategy is one that takes time to introduce—particularly when learning Guardiola’s variant of it—and learning to do it as a collective is tough. Fortunately for City, Pep has had them at it since day one of pre-season.
Even in the early stages of the summer, when the teams he could field were almost solely made of youth players due to the delayed Euro 2016 comebacks, the aggression was obvious. Pep pinpointed this as one of the things he was most pleased with about their preparation for the season, per the Evening News, and as the seniors have been drip-fed into the XI, the approach has remained.
West Ham were all over the place defensively in the first half at the Etihad Stadium before the international break, and that was because of the intense pressure they were under. Aguero, who has been on a tailored fitness regime under Pep in order to condition him to lead the press, alternated between dropping off and pushing high—and whenever the latter occurred, his colleagues followed (Aguero's pressing will have to be replicated by Iheanacho).
Slaven Bilic opted to use a 3-5-2 formation in order to give himself an extra body (and an extra passing angle) at the back when building play, but they still couldn’t pull themselves together. Plenty of square passes were cut out, and with a strike force of Enner Valencia and Ashley Fletcher, the Hammers could only look to lift balls into the channels and hope their strikers would run onto them.
This is where Ibrahimovic, inevitably, comes in. His strong-as-an-ox style will be crucial to providing a relief point for United when City push up, and David De Gea can also aim for Fellaini if he’s occasionally able to spurt forward. De Gea’s kicking is pretty good, and he’ll no doubt be able to find his big targets frequently.
With Otamendi questionable for the game and Kolarov the likely stand-in, playing long to Ibrahimovic represents not only a relief mechanism but also the best route of attack. He will surely dominate the Serbian aerially, making crosses and long passes into his vicinity a must.
.jpg?w=600 "Fans React to Simpson Pick 😱")
.jpg?w=600 "Full Eagles-Cowboys Trade 🤝")
.jpg?w=600 "Brady Reacts to Mendoza Pick")
