I’d rather have Guardiola at United: Kanchelskis
MANCHESTER United cult hero Andrei Kanchelskis would have preferred to see Pep Guardiola take the reins at Old Trafford rather than the “lucky” Jose Mourinho.
Guardiola’s Manchester City sit eight points clear of second-placed United at the top of the Premier League ahead of the season’s first Manchester derby on Sunday.
City have dropped just two points all season and, though some victories have come the hard way, the leaders have looked almost unstoppable at times.
United are their nearest challengers and can breathe new life into the title race on Sunday.
Yet Mourinho’s more conservative style has come in for criticism compared to Guardiola’s free-flowing football, and Kanchelskis, an advocate of attacking football, can’t help but admire the City manager’s philosophy.
When asked whether he rates Guardiola higher than Mourinho, he said: “At the moment, yes. At the moment, City look a bit better — a higher level than United.
“United have big names, big players — and City have as well — but looking at the games, City are making a better demonstration of football. City are playing good football.”
Guardiola has often been criticised for only working with dominant clubs who have a wealth of resources at their disposal, but Kanchelskis believes the same can be said of Mourinho.
The former winger, who made 161 appearances for United between 1991 and 1995, claims Mourinho has been “lucky” at several points in his career, particularly on the night Porto eliminated United from the Champions League at Old Trafford in 2004.
“Mourinho worked with Bobby Robson — a great coach — and came straight in and very soon took on a great team in Porto,” Kanchelskis said. “They had big names, big players and dominated. Mourinho was lucky. He knew he would never dominate in small teams, second teams.
“Porto were lucky to beat Manchester United by scoring the last-minute equaliser at Old Trafford. I remember that game — that referee — where there was a free-kick and Tim Howard made a mistake. So then it was all Mourinho, Mourinho, Mourinho.
“It was easy for Porto against Monaco in the final, then he took over at Chelsea: good money, good players. It was just easy work. Inter Milan — working for (Massimo) Moratti — great, a lot of money and good players again.
“Real Madrid — only one season was good but the next two there were problems. Then back to Chelsea where there were problems as well. He’s a great coach, but that was an important season for Mourinho at Porto.”