Manchester United vs Manchester City: Louis van Gaal or Manuel Pellegrini - Who is the Godfather of Manchester?

In the post-Ferguson world, the United manager displays much of the Scotsman’s aggressive confidence, but it is his City counterpart who has the more attractive team.

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Louis van Gaal is in the seat by the emergency exit, talking to journalists as the Aeroflot Airbus ploughs it way towards Sheremetyevo Airport. The forecast is that it will be minus six in Moscow when Manchester United kick off against CSKA. United’s manager is unconcerned. “The sun always shines for Van Gaal,” he laughs.

The sun did shine in Moscow in skies the colour of Manchester City shirts but, in the Khimki Arena, United’s play was overcast. Only David De Gea had fewer touches of the ball than Wayne Rooney on Wednesday night and Bastian Schweinsteiger was substituted at half-time.

When he was asked why, Van Gaal said he had been too slow. Other managers would have mumbled something about a tight hamstring and having to protect Schweinsteiger for this afternoon’s derby.

Sir Alex Ferguson was one for the tight hamstring. One morning, 10 Novembers ago, he gave an upbeat assessment of Roy Keane’s chances of returning to full fitness. Later that day, journalists were handed out a press release stating that the Manchester United captain’s contract had been terminated. To David Beckham, he operated “like a godfather, a man you respected and feared”.

When Roberto Martinez, on taking the job at Wigan, remarked that he could not understand why so many managers were in thrall to Ferguson, he received an invitation to join him at San Carlo, Ferguson’s favourite restaurant. It was his admission to the magic circle.

If Ferguson was a godfather, Van Gaal is a headmaster, and his press conferences are delivered like a lecture. When, after the 1-1 draw in Moscow, a journalist said previous United sides would have swept CSKA away, he replied that the last time these clubs had met it had been a 3-3 draw at Old Trafford. “You need to be better informed,” he said like someone tossing back some half- finished homework.

Van Gaal’s restaurant of choice is Wing’s, a Chinese in Manchester’s Lincoln Square, where they display a plate signed by the United manager. There is also one signed by Manuel Pellegrini.

When Ferguson was in his pomp, Manchester was, to the outsider, a one-club city. When they travelled abroad, they were referred to simply as “Manchester” – the United was superfluous. City at the turn of the century presented as much of a threat as 1860 Munich do to Bayern.

Ferguson outlasted 14 Manchester City managers during his long rule at Old Trafford and even Roberto Mancini, who snatched the title from him with the last kick of the season (such a United thing to do), was sacked after losing the FA Cup final in the driving rain, a few days before Ferguson made his final bow.

His successors have faced up to a very different Manchester City. The club Pellegrini inherited was a formidable one: Joe Hart, Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Yaya Touré, David Silva and Samir Nasri. They are still the foundations of the club.

Ferguson may have left behind a side that had just won the title by 11 points, but of the dozen players who featured regularly in that team nearly half were 30 or more, while eight of the 12 are no longer at Old Trafford.

Pellegrini may be portrayed as colourless compared to the man he faces in today’s derby but he appears to have a much clearer idea of how his teams should play.

Van Gaal won La Liga with Barcelona. Pellegrini was sacked after a single season with Real Madrid, but the fact that his side scored more than 100 goals and amassed 96 points is as important as the fact they finished second.

“The fans will always take a win – that for them is the most important thing,” he said. “If you won 38 games 1-0, they would be very happy. But would they be that happy in the second season? If I thought it was better to play that way, then I would do it but there are a lot of teams – Holland – who did not win a trophy but are always remembered for the beautiful way they played football.

“There are a lot of teams who win the Premier League and you can never remember the names of their players. You must have an open mind and give a spectacle to the fans who pay for the tickets and you cannot be nervous for 85 minutes because you have scored just one goal in the first five.

“I have always been like that as a manager, always. To have 10 technical players running behind the ball, just because you are winning 1-0, is something I simply don’t understand.”

Despite the ceaseless talk of his “philosophy”, what Van Gaal is about is rather more difficult to grasp. If his Manchester United were a film, it would have a vast budget, a star director and shimmering cast list but would lack any clear plot.

The script would be subject to considerable rewrites and changes of personnel. Van Gaal admitted to as many as 15 separate meetings before United played what turned out to be a very effective game against Everton last weekend.

This season, Juan Mata, Schweinsteiger, Memphis Depay and Matteo Darmian have all endured what for a footballer must be the ultimate humiliation of being removed at half-time.

When he was at Bayern Munich, Holger Badstuber thanked Van Gaal for radically improving him as a player while adding that the club could not cope with the relentless reshuffling of the squad, especially in defence.

Van Gaal is no dictator. Ferguson would never have admitted, as Van Gaal did, that Rooney and Michael Carrick had been to see him to complain of a flatness in the dressing room. He dropped Daley Blind against Everton because he recognised the mental burden that he carried over from Holland’s’ failure to qualify for the European Championship finals – a team managed by Blind’s father, one of Van Gaal’s closest confidants in football.

However, in the matter of how to play, he has the first and last word – even to the extent that, as manager of AZ Alkmaar, he suffered a double leg fracture attempting to demonstrate the correct way to pole vault. He was then 56.

The last derby at Old Trafford finished with United winning 4-2, a result that should have allowed Van Gaal to put his stamp on the club but which left him strangely dissatisfied.

“I am only satisfied when we play 90 minutes very well,” he said. “Last year there were only two of those matches. Of course, it was a fantastic afternoon and I drank a fantastic glass of wine afterwards but there were other games that as a manager were more satisfying.

“Tottenham away in the first half; the second half was more tiring but it was reasonable because it was in the Christmas period – and the Liverpool games home and away.”

In this he resembles a Dutch Don Revie, a man whose obsession with dossiers and drill overshadowed his talent as a manager. Once, as he lay dying, Revie discussed one of Leeds’ finest performances, a 7-0 thrashing of Southampton in March 1972 with his great lieutenant, John Giles.

“You know,” he said to Giles, “I should have let them off the leash more.”

When he finishes his three-year contract at Manchester United, Van Gaal might feel the same.

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VANGAALSPEAK - A WAY WITH WORDS

‘I have said to you that you are the best fans in the world but I was tonight a little bit disappointed. I have seen a lady who plays the saxophone fantastically – give her big applause.’

To fans at the club’s player of the year dinner.

‘Yes City do not have Aguero or Silva but we do not have Luke Shaw or Paddy McNair. Why are you laughing?’

To journalists this week.

‘The fans are shouting every week: ‘Louis van Gaal’s army’. It is logical I have a good relationship with the players. There are only nine left from the initial group and the ones I have brought in are not going to say I am a lousy manager.’

Responding to questions that he lacks support at Old Trafford.