Empire or Silverware: The dynamic between Manchester City and United

By Cody Bender | Feb 27, 2017

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 26: Manager Jose Mourinho of Manchester United watches from the touchline the EFL Cup Fourth Round match between Manchester United and Manchester City at Old Trafford on October 26, 2016 in Manchester, England. (Photo by John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images) /

This weekend Manchester City had the day off, instead of the next edition of The Manchester Derby. The game was bumped due to Manchester United making it to the EFL Cup final.

The EFL Cup is considered either the third or fourth most important trophy in England, depending on your view of the FA Community Shield, most of the elite clubs in the Premier League will typically run out lesser sides to see what the lower end of the bench has to offer.

When it came to Sunday’s final against Southampton, manager José Mourinho ran out a side featuring some of the key signings from United’s star studded summer signing spree. This was two first choice squads going head to head. Which resulted in an entertaining match with United snagging a last second winner.

The results of this match on Twitter and in match reviews was constant references to Zlatan and Mourinho and how the two win anywhere they go. This is also something that City fans have heard constantly about Pep and how he is going to bring Barcelona style success to the blue half of Manchester.

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The situation City fans find themselves in is one where the two best managers in the world reside in Manchester and one now has a trophy. It also seems unlikely that Pep will raise any silverware in his first season in charge of City.

Does this mark one a success and the other a failure? My answer is that Pep made a choice that might have removed any chance at a trophy this season, but in the long run will set us up for many more.

When Pep sent Joe Hart to Italy he removed a huge support beam in City’s structure, but revealed that our defense was rotten to the core, and should under go a major reworking in the next transfer window.

While Jose has won some silverware, and some are asking “Are United back?”, when in reality United has seen very little improvement from last year. They are constantly relying on a player well into his 30’s to save their bacon, match after match.

Maybe Pep will throw out more first team players and really give a go at the FA Cup or City will finally have a lucky draw in Champions League and face a weakened opponent in the final.

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If Pep is able to get any trophy out of a team, with no goalkeeping, and very poor defending in front it will be very impressive, but exposing the squads glaring weaknesses give us a blueprint to future domination. We all know the offense is there now if City could add some defense they will be scary good.