Premier League: Manchester City 0-0 Manchester United
If you had reserved this evening to watch a spectacular match, you must be very sad as the show was not on in this Manchester derby. Afraid of not losing, both teams played very defensively and displayed a dul performance. Not much more to say.. What do the coaches want to add on?
Coach Guardiola – Manchester City
“I am pretty sure United came here to try to win the game. I have never met one team, one opponent, or one player that doesn’t try to win the game.
We played to win the game but again we were not able to and we need to look at why. In my career as a manager, I’ve played against all types of teams and different styles. I am not here to judge what my opponent does, but what we have to do to beat them. Our chances created to score is very low so we need to think about the way we need to play.”
Coach Mourinho – Manchester United:
“With the resilience, the character, the personality, the desire and all the objectives we can find, I am super happy with the boys. In the first half, we were very good. We controlled them totally, easily, and we were dangerous in the counter attack. We had a couple of good chances to score in the first half. If we repeat that in the second half, we win it.
They started strong, they pushed hard and pressed us higher. At the same time, we were not able to have the ball and move the ball well. I promise not to speak about players who are not playing, that’s why I’m not going to do it. I prefer to say that with the qualities of the players on the pitch, especially in midfield, we missed a little bit of that quality to have the ball, to start moving the ball, to start from the back, to connect with the attacking players.
In the first half we were direct, we explored a few good positions behind their defenders. They stopped us with a lot of fouls, fouls of intelligent, experienced people like Otamendi, like Kompany. Fouls that the referee doesn’t give because they are really clever at it. But in the first half, I could feel we were always dangerous, [albeit] not with big occasions. We had a couple of movements that could have been the start of something important. In the second half, we didn’t have that. We lost many balls and, in the second half, City were stronger than us.
Today a lot of people were focused on the difference of points between us and Man City but I think some people forgot to look at the distance to Liverpool and this point can be a very important point for us. Twenty-four matches unbeaten in the Premier League is not the same as 24 matches unbeaten in another league. It means a lot. That desire means a lot for everyone.”
