Worst Manchester Derby in a generation?

Opinion

Depending on Saturday’s results, Sunday’s Manchester Derby could be the first of the Premier League era to feature — though “feature” might be an overstatement — two clubs in the bottom half of the table.

Man City, which will host the game, is already 13th and could drop even lower by kick-off (10:30 a.m., FuboTV). Man United, in 9th, is almost certain to fall two or three places before taking the field at Etihad Stadium. In fact, it needs an otherworldly combination of scorelines to keep it from doing so.

Based on the standings, the stats and the eye test, this is the worst Manchester Derby in a generation.

Not even City, for all its Abu Dhabi oil wealth and recent — perhaps ill-gotten — successes, has indicated it’s up for a title challenge this term. The 2023 treble winner is coming off a campaign in which it finished third in the league and didn’t win a single trophy and, if anything, the current squad is inferior to that one.

During the summer the club allowed Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan to leave on free transfers, while number-one goalkeeper Ederson joined Fenerbahçe and ex-captain Kyle Walker moved to Burnley. It also sent defender Manuel Akanji and winger Jack Grealish out on loan.

The sell-off, combined with the acquisitions of left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri, midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, winger Rayan Cherki and goalkeepers James Trafford and Gianluigi Donnarumma, represents the latest phase of manager Pep Guardiola’s roster rebuild — something he didn’t attempt in his previous jobs.

At Barcelona, he was given the world-class core of Puyol, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. At Bayern it was Boateng, Lahm, Xabi Alonso, Robben and Ribéry. He left both posts before rebuilds were required.

To his credit, at least he’s giving it a go at City, though it is not going well. After beating Wolves 4-0 to start the season, his teams have lost at home to Spurs and away to Brighton.

Sunday’s derby should represent a chance to reverse course. However, both Ait-Nouri and Cherki, as well as forward Omar Marmoush, will miss out through injury, while defender John Stones is doubtful, too.

All told, Guardiola has just 16 healthy first-team players to face United. Together, squad issues and past defeats have even cast City as pre-match underdogs. That’s how bad it’s been.

To clarify, a team has to be quite poor for Manchester United to enter a match with anything resembling positive expectations. This, after all, is a group that crashed out of the Carabao Cup away to fourth-tier Grimsby. And Grimsby followed up its triumph by losing to Bristol Rovers three days later.

United boss Rubem Amorim, whose maniacal scribbling on a tactics board at Blundell Park became an immediate meme, somehow remains in a post he, himself, has threatened to quit and that some of his players surely wish had already been filled by someone else.

Appointed last November, his record is so terrible that, when extrapolated over a full 38-game schedule, it has the Red Devils among the worst teams in the Premier League.

Now, United’s problems run a lot further and deeper than its manager, though Amorim’s tactical inflexibility puts it at a disadvantage from the first kick. His is a philosophy that worked briefly and beautifully at one of the biggest clubs in Portugal, but after almost a year abroad it’s obvious to everyone else that it’s simply not the right approach for the squad he currently has.

Already on Friday, more than 48 hours before the derby, he had once again made a decision that will see his side set up to fail against its arch-rival.

Despite spending £18.2 million ($34 million) to acquire goalkeeper Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp earlier this month, Amorim has already named mistake-prone Altay Bayindir his starter for Sunday.

The reason? Because Lammens, he said in his pre-match press conference, had come to a “different league” in a “different country” with a “different ball.” A ball, by the way, that has yet to make Bayindir’s acquaintance.

It’s a judgement that goes against all reason, but when coupled with the fact that £74 million ($139 million) striker Benjamin Sesko has yet to start a match at the club, the pattern starts to emerge. It’s the sort of pattern that generates 31 points from 30 matches over the last 10 months.

It hasn’t been often that City and United have contended for major prizes at the same time. Things just haven’t overlapped that way. But for both to be dreadfully uncompetitive? That’s unprecedented.

So, get ready for the worst Manchester Derby in living memory. Excited yet?

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