Is the Special One capable of stopping Pep?

Manchester United are 11 points behind their neighbors Manchester City in the league table. Manchester City is playing beautiful football under Pep Guardiola and it is difficult to see them losing such a lead from here unless something remarkable happens. The league seems to be wrapped up and United along with others seem to be fighting only for the second place.

Jose Mourinho has won the league title in the second season in each of his previous jobs so expectations were high coming into the season.So with league title seemingly gone and chances of this team doing something special in Europe looking slim, the question arises if the 'Special One' has lost his Midas touch.

Poor Start to the season or is it?

Manchester United have already got 41 points on board in just 18 games which is the best United have got since the retirement of Alex Ferguson. To put it into perspective this points tally after 18 matches are better than that of 8 of the title-winning seasons under the legendary Scot.

The glory of United's season has been overshadowed by the unprecedented brilliance of the blue side of Manchester. Manchester City is looking in a league of their own as they have crossed 50 points mark in just 18 games. In the process, they have gone on an unprecedented 16 game winning run.

But it would be wrong to call to Mourinho a failure just because his counterpart Pep has done exceedingly well, rather Mourinho has been far from a failure at the Red Devils.

Mourinho had to build a team

Manchester City was planning to get Pep Guardiola on board for a long time. The goal of the project going in City was to build a 'footballing empire' and for that, they choose Pep to be the perfect person.They gave Spanish tactician perfect atmosphere by bringing in backroom staff who were close to Pep and knew working style of him.

On the other hand, when Mourinho came to the Red Devils the club was going through its worst phase in the last 3 decades as they were trying to recover from the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson.United's transfer policy in the years since the departure of legendary Scottish manager was wanting which left a lot of deadwood on the team.

The Portuguese had an unenviable task of clearing out the deadwood left by previous regimes and he had to be spot on with his recruitments.To his credit, most of the signings made by Jose has hit the ground running since coming to Old Trafford. Players like Pogba, Bailly, Matic, Lukaku have become an integral part of the team.

How important is he to Manchester United!

On the other hand, he has been quite ruthless in clearing out the deadwood. He has shipped off the likes of Scneiderlain, Depay for decent money. He has also handled the outgoing of experienced stars like Rooney and Schweinsteiger in a professional manner which has helped United to get them of their wage bill.

How to match City?

The Red Devils seem to be 2-3 transfer windows behind their city rivals in the transfer activity. City have enviable depth all over the pitch while the Red Devils have to play with makeshift fullbacks in most of the matches. When Silva had to miss a match due to personal reasons Ilkay Gudogan seamlessly replaced him. City has the luxury of having two world class strikers in the form of Aguero and Jesus. A player as talented as Bernardo Silva has to be content with spending most of the time on the bench.

On the other hand, Manchester United seem over-dependent on individual qualities of Paul Pogba. It is a fact that Red Devils look a far better team with Frenchman in the team. They looked menacing on counter attacks at the Emirates when they had the dynamic midfielder. Lukaku is more involved in the game when he has his friend on his side. While without him he rarely gets to see the ball and cuts a sad lonely figure trying to pick up pieces.

While all this speaks volumes about the quality Pogba brings on the table, it also shows how dependent United are on him. If you are so dependent on a single player you can't expect yourself to beat a team like City. United do need reinforcements in a lot of areas, but they desperately need talent in the final third of the pitch.

Manchester United and Jose Mourinho have to do some quick thinking before it is too late to stop this Manchester City Juggernaut. But as we have seen before, if anyone can stop Pep Guardiola it is the 'Special One'.