Jose Mourinho has wasted millions at Man Utd but his failure to challenge Pep Guardiola is not just about money

It did not require this derby to tell us Manchester United are now going backwards under Jose Mourinho. Three goals shipped to Brighton & Hove Albion were a lot more telling than the three goals conceded to this free-scoring Manchester City side.

Abysmal starts against Newcastle and Bournemouth told us much more than those feeble beginnings against Pep Guardiola’s relentless operation. Indeed, we did not need this derby to inform us there is a huge gulf between City and United, on the pitch and off, but if we are searching for reasons why the gap has been allowed to grow to the point where it now looks a very long road back for a club that used to set the yardstick for the rest, Sunday was instructive.

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Paul Pogba succumbed to injury on the eve of the game but, even then, that was not enough to persuade Mourinho to start his £52 million summer signing, Fred, who remained on the bench throughout the 3-1 defeat, even when United’s midfield was getting overrun. Drink that in for a moment. United parted with the same amount of money on one player that Juventus have spent reconstructing an entire midfield over the past three years and a half-fit Marouane Fellaini was considered preferable for the full 90 minutes to the club’s headline close-season recruit.

Whereas seven of City’s starting XI at the Etihad were signed by Guardiola, only two starters from United’s ranks - Victor Lindelof and Nemanja Matic - were bought by Mourinho. Guardiola’s two centre-half signings, John Stones and Aymeric Laporte, started and are beginning to form an ominous pairing. Mourinho’s other centre-half purchase, Eric Bailly, was again nowhere to be seen and has started just two games with Lindelof. Two games in 18 months together.

Man Utd's big-money signings under Jose Mourinho have failed to deliver

Alexis Sanchez, like Fred, was a substitute and did not find his way on to the pitch until the 73rd minute, the Chilean’s stock and confidence at its lowest ebb. Henrikh Mkhitaryan has already been sold. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is also long gone. Pogba was injured but fell out with Mourinho some time ago and Romelu Lukaku, a second-half substitute, was returning from a hamstring problem, although remember that the Belgium striker was dropped for his last game before injury after eight games without a goal.

That lot cost more or less the same as Ederson, Kyle Walker, Stones, Laporte, Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez, all of whom were signed under Guardiola, started the derby and, to a man, look worth every penny shelled out on them.

Mourinho talks about money a lot, often drawing comparisons to City’s spending, without even a hint of embarrassment when he has squandered millions and consistently failed to get a tune out of those he chose to buy. He talks with admiration about the organisation in operation behind the scenes at City - in effect, the recruitment team - hinting at the need for something comparable at Old Trafford, but then throws his toys out of the pram when he does not get his own way in the transfer market, as happened in the summer over the pursuit of a centre-half.

Mourinho looks enviously at what Guardiola inherited across the road but it is worth remembering at this point that the City team the Catalan took over - yes, the one already featuring Sergio Aguero and David Silva and Fernandinho and Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling - had just scraped into fourth place in the Premier League, above United on goal difference. City finished that season with 66 points, 34 less than they mustered two years later.

That is not all down to money. If anything, it is a sharp reminder of the importance of coaching, of clarity of ideas, of careful team building, of conviction, of skiful man-management.

Watching the derby, City looked like a team coached meticulously and yet still holding plenty back, seemingly mindful that they did not need to go hell for leather against mid-table opposition. And that is what United look like at the moment - mid-table opposition, one with a negative goal difference who have shipped more goals than any team bar the bottom three and Burnley. Mid-table opposition, despite having spent more lavishly in recent years than at any point in their history and being occupiers of the largest wage bill in the Premier League. Drink that in for a moment.