Man City beat Tottenham Hotspur in the EFL Cup final on Sunday and many reckon had Jose Mourinho been on the sidelines, he would have somehow managed to keep City at bay.
Young Ryan Mason was in charge of Spurs at Wembley and naturally, the interim coach could do very little to help Spurs overcome the genius of Pep Guardiola.
A lot of people have argued that Daniel Levy chose to sack Jose Mourinho at the wrong time but according to Jamie Redknapp, the Portuguese wouldn’t have made much of a difference on Sunday.
“I think everyone will say: ‘Would Jose have a difference if he was here for this game?’, but it didn’t have a different feel to when they played at the Etihad a couple of months ago,” the pundit said on Sky Sports, as quoted by The Mirror.
“There was a gulf in class then and I think it was pretty much the same.”
“You have to be so careful because we all believe in a philosophy. You want to play out from the back, but if a team is pressing you and they get success with it and they can’t get out, there has to be a time, even as a player where you accept this isn’t working.
“Then you go to the halfway line, try to turn them and get down the sides, a little bit like Chelsea did last week.”
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The last time Spurs met Manchester City was back in February and Jose Mourinho was in charge of the Lilywhites in that match. City went on to win that particular Premier League game 3-0 thanks to goals from Rodri and Gundogan.
And to be fair, the North London side looked as disjointed that night as they were in the EFL Cup final.
It’s very easy to say that Jose Mourinho would have pulled the rabbit out of the hat but the class that Man City are oozing right now, not many clubs have the authority to pinch anything off of them.
The only thing Mourinho could have done is take the match beyond the scheduled time and tire City out, which is the last thing Guardiola would have wanted given they play a key Champions League game this week.
