English League Cup: Manchester derby again

(Baonghean.vn) - At 1:45 a.m. on October 27, the highlight match of the 1/8 round of the English League Cup will be the Manchester derby between MU and Man City. Both teams are having disappointing days in terms of performance. MU just suffered a crushing 0-4 defeat against Chelsea, while Man City has not won in 5 consecutive matches. Therefore, the match becomes more worth watching because both teams want to use it to regain the spirit of the players.

Old Trafford worried

Talking about the 0-4 loss to Chelsea, veteran striker Eidur Gudjohnsen, Mourinho's favorite student, humorously said: "Jose still knows how to get Chelsea to their best form."

Football experts all agree that this is not Mourinho's team despite spending 200 million dollars in the recent transfer market. Last year, Louis Van Gaal earned 19 points after nine games, while Jose Mourinho has only 14 points so far. And David Moyes in the 2013-2014 season also earned the same number of points after nine games, only with a player like Tom Cleverley, not Paul Pogba.

Both Mourinho and Guardiola are currently sitting on hot coals.

In the history of the Premier League, this is MU's second worst start, only in the 2014-2015 season did Man Utd get 13 points after nine rounds.

For Mourinho personally, after the bitter 0-5 defeat against Barca in October 2010, when he was still leading Real Madrid, he has just received such a forgettable result. As for the audience loyal to MU, remember the last time Man Utd lost by four goals or more in the Premier League was against Chelsea, in a match at Stamford Bridge in 1999, with a score of 5-0.

From being the underdog to MU, Chelsea is now unbeaten against Man Utd in the last 8 consecutive matches in the Premier League (4 wins, 4 draws).

Up to now, Mourinho has had 14 official matches as MU captain, Mourinho won 8, drew 2 and lost 4, which means he has 26 points. That means he is 1 point behind Moye and 5 points behind Louis van Gaal.

Pogba has tried both the No. 6 and No. 10 positions on the field, but the French midfielder has not yet fully developed his inherent strength. To solve this problem, in the next match, Mourinho may choose Michael Carrick to replace Fellaini. When pushing Rooney to the bench, it is very likely that Zlatan Ibrahimovic will also be given a rest by Mourinho to refresh the MU attack. MU's coaching staff also used this match to test the center-back position that Bally left due to injury in the match against Chelsea.

Man City worries

When Pep Guardiola took charge of the Etihad Stadium, the owner of the Etihad Stadium expected Man City to play more varied and beautiful attacks, not just ugly victories. In fact, Pep's Man City is still controlling the ball very well based on the technical foundation of the players that Pep Guardiola brought to Etihad. The "Super Four" Silva-Bruyne-Aguero-Sterling has made Man City's playing style much smoother.

However, what Man City boss Sheikh Mansour and the Etihad Stadium audience were expecting was the harmony and rhythm when coordinating quickly to score a goal, but that has not come yet. Struggling with the 3-5-2 or 3-5-1-1 formation, Pep Guardiola has had 5 matches without knowing the taste of victory, making Man City fans impatient.

Playing at Old Trafford, MU certainly cannot place the bus in front of the goal.

Man City's opponents quickly discovered their weakness, which is that they are quite confused when developing short balls continuously from the back. When facing good pressing teams like Brendan Rodgers' Celtic (3-3), Pochettino's Tottenham (0-2), and recently Barcelona (0-4), they have drawn and lost.

Man City are on a streak of 5 games without a win recently (3 draws, 2 losses). The other pain is that the goals come from long passes, something Pep Guardiola does not want.

For the first time in his coaching career since March 2009, Guardiola has failed to win five consecutive matches. So, the English League Cup has never been important to the Manchester teams, but in this context, no one wants to lose this derby.

Currently, both Mourinho and Guardiola are sitting on hot coals and the victory of one means pushing the other to the wall.

But that's football, the winner has the right to write history!

An Thanh