Key differences between champions and Man United

After just two matches in the new season we're left with more questions than answers with the Red Devils

Since taking over as the managers of the two Manchester clubs Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola have respectively spent £ 344 million and £ 476 million in order to reclaim the Premier League title. While City exceeded all expectations and claimed a league and cup double rivals Manchester United have failed to impress many as their performances have been tedious and mostly frustrating as they've haven't lived up to their money's worth.

While it may be easy to downplay City's success over United to the difference in spending in the transfer window, there is an underlying issue about how United have gone about their transfer business.

City's transfer business reads like the same script as Guardiola used in his previous jobs at Bayern Munich and Barcelona: get the right type of players who play in the way you want them to and the results take care of themselves.

This speaks volumes about a plan in the grander scheme of things and more importantly living in line with a philosophy which will also produces other future stars.

On the other hand with Manchester United, how they've recruited players has been a bit of a shot in the dark where Mourinho's looked to have taken a scattered approach in just randomly getting players on board to play for the Red Devils regardless of whether they would fit into his system and footballing philosophy.

Here's the thing about this approach it shows a.) lack of planning and b.) makes it harder to achieve any sort of goals because there isn't a predetermined end game to their effort and we'll likely see United run up and down the field without actually producing anything.

Another major issue for Manchester United and Mourinho is the problem about the club's identity at the moment. Despite having players of the quality of Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku United have reverted to the type of football which would even keep the most hard-core United fans away from watching.

More importantly the poor man management on Mourinho's behalf won't go anywhere to making things better by pointing the finger at players especially if some of them are the most influential. The result? More performances like the one at Brighton will occur more frequently and its becoming obvious that things have to change.

How the change will occur is all up to Mourinho; either he makes the necessary changes to his team and at least achieves a third place finish and even maybe a trophy or he could continue as he's done and United will have a change in management very soon.