An alternative nonrevisionist narrative/take on the respective squad strengths with the arrival of pep/mou would be something like:
http://www.thedaisycutter.co.uk/2017/12/mourinhos-inheritance-weaker-squad-classic-deflection/
to be honest there's a lot of nonsense in that
comparing and playing down the quality and experience of the City side with the United side is silly....describing Young as a top player is generous when you consider his awful stats prior to this season - if you consider when both managers arrived the big issue City had was under performance whilst United's biggest issue and one that remains to be fixed is scoring goals (check out those horrible stats)
Aguero was obviously a far superior player than Rooney.....De Bruyne, Silva and Sterling to a lesser degree were streets ahead of our attacking players in quality/experience like Depay who failed, Lingard who was very average under LVG, Martial and Rashford who have bags of potential but are kids unclear of their best positions.....Fernandinho v Schneiderlein was no contest, Carrick and Schweinsteiger too old to make a major impact.....the list goes on
what I would bring it down to would be look at the United players Jose inherited who are regularly playing
Lingard, Martial, Rashford, Valencia, Smalling, Jones, Mata, Young, Fellaini, De Gea.....of that list you'd only say De Gea is established quality...expect Martial to join him sooner rather than later
De Bruyne and Silva are world class, Aguero has declined a little but is still top 10 striker in the world, Sterling has reclaimed his form from the great season under Liverpool and Pep has improved Fernandinho and Delph
Pep's signings have improved the team including Ederson, Stones, Sane, Silva, Walker, Mendy is class, Danilo is versatile and impressive, Gundogan is impressive when fit - overall Pep has a plan the players understand and it is bearing fruits
wheras Jose seems to be lacking an effective game plan and in all honesty of his 7 signings only Pogba, Matic and a perma-injured Bailly have improved us
overall it's clear there was a gulf in the quality of players inherited and Pep inherited players technically good enough to play his system - Jose on the other hand inherited a mish mash of players with no prior plan....
- when he arrived we had no right winger and played a slow Mata there
- we had 2 strikers- an inexperienced Rashford and an awful Rooney
- a RB who was a converted winger
centre backs like Jones/Smalling/Rojo who were inconsistent and injured constantly
- a midfield containing Herrera (an 8? a 10, a 6)
- Carrick is quality but too old
- Schneiderlein- I'm still not sure what he does
- Fellaini?
- one left back in Blind who had played the season as a CB and one in Shaw who had major injury and attitude issues....the list could go on
it's no surprise we are behind City when you consider that.... we do need to be more focused with our player development and purchases as I'm not sure where someone like Griezeman would have fitted in and it does feel a little like chucking expensive players in and it's up to them to produce.....Id like to see a DoF or even a group of people like Carrick/Giggs/Scholes/foreign individuals tasked with formulating how we wish to play, a coach who suits that system, a youth set up that prepares kids for it and identify players easier
a long way to go for us and if we finish 2nd that will be considered a big achievement given all I've said