What did Jose and Pep change?

Manchester United and Manchester City have made big changes this summer. Sky Sports has once again teamed up with Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) to look at how the two teams did on the opening weekend of the new season – and how their tactics and style changed from the final fixture of 2015/16.

Manchester United

Manchester United beat Bournemouth 3-1 at Old Trafford in their final Premier League fixture last season and they repeated that scoreline on the opening weekend of the new campaign at the Vitality Stadium – but there’s been plenty of change both on and off the pitch between those two games.

In the dugout, Jose Mourinho has replaced Louis van Gaal and the Portuguese has made significant changes on the field. New signings have taken up key positions and there was also a change in formation and approach for his first Premier League in charge of United.

In Van Gaal’s Old Trafford farewell – a game postponed after a bomb scare – United cruised to victory against Eddie Howe’s men, with Wayne Rooney playing a key role in the creation of two of the home side’s goals as well as finding the net himself in a man-of-the-match performance.

Van Gaal fielded a 4-1-4-1 formation back in May, with Michael Carrick sitting behind a midfield four of Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Rooney and Anthony Martial, with breakthrough star Marcus Rashford leading the line.

Rashford’s place in the starting line-up was taken by United’s new superstar striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Sunday, while Mourinho also opted for a midfield pair of Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini (with £89m buy Paul Pogba suspended) behind an attacking trio of Rooney, Martial and Mata.

The new boss also made changes to the defence, with new signing Eric Bailly and Luke Shaw stepping into the back-line in place of the suspended Chris Smalling and youngster Cameron Borthwick-Jackson.

There were always going to be clear differences in United’s style for an opening-weekend away game compared to an end-of-season dead rubber at home and the contrast in their approach was marked.

United played far deeper at the weekend compared to May – just three of their players had an average position in the Bournemouth half, compared with eight at the end of last season. This could be indicative of Mourinho’s long-held preference for a low-block when defending.

Indeed, the average distance from United’s goal at which they won back …

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