All of Pep Guardiola’s work ahead of the Manchester derby this weekend has naturally revolved around having a high percentage of possession, which is to be expected, but there is one surprising element to it. He has been scrutinising what more pragmatic sides such as Brentford, Brighton and even Copenhagen did against United for instruction.
All of them went to Old Trafford looking to get on the ball and dominate – with mixed success – in a way that at one point would have been unimaginable. It is really only Nottingham Forest who didn’t take that approach this season, preferring to let United have the ball. In United’s nine Premier League games so far, they have had lower possession than their opponent in four of those. In other words, they’ve been chasing the opposition in almost half of their games.
