Manchester United and Jose Mourinho pay the price for 'simple and pragmatic' football in derby defeat

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“Park the bus, park the bus, Man United / Park the bus, park the bus I say / Park the bus, park the bus, Man United / Playing football the Mourinho way.”

As a lyric, it does not quite scan - there is a syllable too many, for a start - but rarely has a chant from the away end cut Old Trafford’s crowd so deep. J Stand, this stadium’s one consistently noisy section, could only offer sarcastic applause and a cheer in response to the jibe from a Manchester City section that was witnessing their team enjoy near-total dominance.

The limp, unambitious fare offered up by Jose Mourinho's Manchester United for the best part of the first half was an open wound, the song was a sprinkling of sodium chloride, sadistically rubbed into it.

The United manager described his set-up as “simple” and “pragmatic” before kick-off. “When they have the ball, we have to defend with 11. And when we have the ball we have to attack with 11, including the goalkeeper.” He had used the same words ahead of last week's victory at the Emirates, when the same “simple” and “pragmatic” style was used to great effect.

In Pep Guardiola's football though, nothing is simple. Everything is complex or unconventional - the product of hours of effort to invent a different way of playing. Nothing is pragmatic either. Everything serves a function, yes, but nothing serves its function alone. It should be ambitious. It should be imaginative. It should be unpredictable.

So, how do you prepare for the unpredictable? That was the question that Mourinho had to answer before this match and his solution was unambitious, unimaginative and ultimately predictable. In a derby United had to win in order to retain any realistic chance of winning the Premier League, he needed to adopt an approach that would maximise his side's chance of victory. Instead, he minimised their chance of avoiding defeat and even then, failed.

The effect of Paul Pogba's absence cannot be understated. This approach 'worked' with the midfielder present at the Emirates, after all, if we conveniently discount one of the most remarkable goalkeeping performances in recent memory. If Pogba had been available, it is fair to presume that United's few attempts to attack would have not have been as disjointed. Maybe a point could have been salvaged.

A point would never have been enough from this game though and given how United barely ventured forward until David Silva had made City's dominance pay by bundling in an opener, it is hard to see how Mourinho ever realistically expected to snatch three. There was only a sense of adventure once they were behind and their only breakthrough came from a Fabian Delph mistake.

It was all quite reminiscent of another meeting of these two managers, the 5-0 victory Guardiola's Barcelona enjoyed over Mourinho's Real Madrid seven years ago. That night was a humiliation and the shame of it has coloured Mourinho's approach to every big match since. The margin of victory here was not as wide, yet the gulf in quality – in ambition – often seemed so.

According to journalist Diego Torres' revelatory account of Mourinho's time in Madrid, after that night in the Nou Camp, he transformed the defeat into “a political triumph”. It was not caused by his own tactical failings, he claimed, but by precisely everything that he found “inconvenient” within the club. The embarrassment of La Manita did not weaken his position, only strengthened it.

It would be wise if Mourinho treated this latest reverse at the hands of Guardiola with a greater sense of introspection. He would have claimed credit if this approach had resulted in victory. He must take responsibility for the defeat. This was ‘the Mourinho way’ and it did not work.