Gary Lineker has suggested that Manchester United could be closer to Manchester City if they had Pep Guardiola in charge of their team.
With the group stage of the latest Champions League tournament now over, the Citizens managed to top their group and win all of their six games, whereas the Red Devils came last in their group and were dumped out of Europe altogether.
In the Premier League, City are currently six points ahead of United, which, in addition to their midweek efforts, has led to one pundit sharing his thoughts on what state the two clubs would be in if they swapped who they had in charge.
Lineker says Guardiola would improve United
Speaking in a recent episode of The Rest Is Football, Lineker had this to say when asked which of the Manchester clubs would finish higher in the Premier League table if the two current managers were swapped.
He said: “My answer was that I thought it would be really close and a damn sight closer than it is now.
“I think Pep is a genius and he’d get an initial bounce and he is so clever with players. So yeah, I think it would be fascinating if you just did that now and there is not a massive gap between them in terms of points, in terms of where they both are at clubs there is a chasm between them.
“I thought it was an interesting question but it would be fascinating to see where they both finish because Pep is arguably the greatest coach of all time.”
Since Erik ten Hag was appointed at Old Trafford, the Dutchman has overlooked 86 matches in total across all competitions, winning 53, drawing nine and losing 24, leaving him with a points-per-match rate of 1.95.
With Guardiola winning 322 of the 438 games he’s taken charge of at City, giving him a points-per-match rate of 2.32, this and the fact that he has experience of being successful at other big clubs such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich shows why Lineker thinks the Spaniard would improve United.
Regardless, it’s undeniable that no City supporter would want to consider the prospect of Guardiola managing United, even on a hypothetical level.
