Is Pep Guardiola's Success Exposing How Football Has Left Jose Mourinho Behind?

Jose Mourinho looked quintessentially Jose Mourinho as he stood pouting on the Vicarage Road touchline. Smartly turned out, silver hair slick, trenchcoat symmetrically offsetting a neat black tie against a crisp white shirt. But the Manchester United team Mourinho watched slump to a 3-1 defeat at Watford wasn’t a Mourinho team.

In fact, United on the basis of their performance against the Hornets are the antithesis of Mourinho’s identity and mould as a football coach. They are disorganised, unsure of themselves and decidedly flaky. Everything the Portuguese wants from his side, the Old Trafford team are delivering the opposite.

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But Sunday’s loss to Watford wasn’t an isolated case of catastrophic tactical failure. The result means Mourinho has now lost three successive fixtures for the first time since February 2002, when he was Porto boss.

More worryingly, he has now won just seven of his last 21 games in the Premier League, stretching all the way back to last season when his demise at Chelsea betrayed all logic. 

"Some individuals probably feel the pressure and responsibility too much," Mourinho said after the loss to Watford, attempting to rationalise his team’s dismal display, as per BBC Sport. "We started the season very well. But was I thinking that my team was ready, perfect, unbeatable? Not at all. I was completely aware that we were not perfect, with lots of players who are not end products and can make their own mistakes."

Indeed, United are far from perfect. Perhaps it was naive to expect that Mourinho could raise a side that finished outside the top four last season to a title challenge, but there is fundamental concern over the team’s progress under their new manager, even at this early stage of the campaign.

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Their players are underperforming, at least since the Manchester derby defeat to City, but much of the blame for United’s recent form must be shouldered by Mourinho. Once European football’s go-to-guy for instant success, everything about the former Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss is now under scrutiny.

Is it possible Mourinho has been left behind by the modern game? Consider the theory that elite managers only enjoy a decade at the top of the sport before they must adapt to keep up with the methods and practices of the day, and Mourinho might have passed that threshold. Is he still the vanguard of coaching excellence he was not so long ago?

Mourinho’s demise over the past week has been in stark contrast to the rise of Pep Guardiola as this season’s predominant figure in the Premier League. Manchester City have won all of their opening four fixtures and sit atop the table without even exerting themselves to any great level. There is still better to come at the Etihad Stadium, which is a rather ominous thought. 

This season was always likely to be dominated by the Guardiola vs. Mourinho narrative, but most expected the two coaches to be going head-to-head for honours. It wasn’t expected that their rivalry would be one of contrasting fortunes, with one man on the rise and the other on the decline. Even after their Clasico contest in Spain, this was billed as the ultimate clash between two coaching behemoths. The conclusive definition of their rivalry.

It hasn’t turned out that way so far.

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While Guardiola has implemented ideological change at the Etihad Stadium, with signs of that progress starting to show already, Mourinho is toiling to impose himself on a team without any identity, never mind that of their new Portuguese boss. Previously so distinct in his character as a coach and a personality, now Mourinho has seemingly lost his way, unable to forge his hallmarks at Old Trafford.

Against Watford, Mourinho was narrow-minded in his efforts to change the game. He could only change like-for-like, swapping wingers for wingers and midfielders for midfielders. There was little tactical agility to the way in which he addressed the issues United faced at Vicarage Road. He had no answers for the questions being asked of his team.

Standing on the touchline, Mourinho’s blank expression wasn’t a poker face but the face of someone who didn’t know what to do. And Mourinho has made a career of always knowing what to do. 

Of course, it’s too early to pass any conclusive judgement on Mourinho’s tenure as Manchester United manager. Just over a week ago, many were considering the Old Trafford club to be genuine title contenders alongside Man City. They have endured a disastrous seven days, losing to City, Feyenoord and Watford in succession, but there is still plenty time for United to recover. They could yet challenge for the title.

It could be the case that Mourinho is adapting his style to align himself with the demands made of a Manchester United manager. Stylistically, he wasn’t the most natural fit to take over following Louis van Gaal’s dismissal at the end of last season, with the Old Trafford club appointing him on the basis of his background in the game rather than his identity as a coach. A period of transition isn’t just needed for United but for Mourinho as well.

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Guardiola has also been required to change his style and personality as a coach since taking charge at Man City. The days of pure "tiki-taka" are gone, with Leicester City demonstrating last season how counter-attacking sides are now forming the sport’s tactical zeitgeist. And so this City side will borrow aspects of Guardiola’s great Barcelona and Bayern Munich teams, but this will be an outfit of a different mould. That is the challenge that faces the Catalan coach. 

And so it might be too simplistic to claim Mourinho has been left behind by football. His methods and ethos as a coach are no longer as effective as they once were, but he remains one of the Premier League’s most proven managers.

Mourinho has endured a difficult start, yet he still stands the best chance of anyone so far in finally succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United’s spiritual figurehead. He must prove, however, that he is still the man for the modern game.