The former United winger claims Mourinho is too defensive in his tactical approach while Pep Guardiola’s City team is playing the more entertaining football.

Kanchelskis also believes United would be back among the also-rans without goalkeeper David De Gea, who he says is their best player.

He also thinks that if United lose Sunday’s derby at Old Trafford, their Premier League title hopes will be over with over.

“Do I rate Guardiola over Mourinho? At the moment, yes,” said Kanchelskis, who echoed the views last week of former team-mate Eric Cantona in criticisng Mourinho’s pragmatic style. “City are playing at a higher level than United. United have some big names, big players, but City are making a better demonstration of football. They are playing the more entertaining football.

“Some games I’m not happy watching United. Mourinho plays more defensively. It is not like we played under Sir Alex Ferguson. He would never set out his team to play like that. 

“We always played with two wingers – me on one side and Ryan Giggs on the other – and we won many titles. Now it is City who play with wingers and they are scoring a lot of goals. 

“United need wingers to service [Romelu] Lukaku and [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic. If you’ve no service, it’s difficult for them to score goals.

“I also think United need some harder midfielders. When I played, we played had Paul Ince and Roy Keane. They were kicking everything like dogs. Nobody wanted to play in the middle against them. They were unbelievable, so strong.

“We wouldn’t worry about being defensive and could concentrate on attacking because we had those two protecting the defence. There would be improvisation, sometimes we would play in a different way. There was Eric Cantona, Giggsy, myself and Mark Hughes. Now, for me, you’re looking at only one or two good players.”

With City holding an eight-point lead, Kanchelskis believe it will be curtains for United if they lose on Sunday.

“If they lose it is finished,” he said. “There will be no chance. It will be 11 points – it is not possible. Eleven points is too much.”

Mourinho has established himself as one of the most successful coaches in the history of football but Kanchelskis claims he was lucky to learn his trade under former England boss Bobby Robson at Barcelona before inheriting a great Porto team in his early days as a manager.

“Mourinho worked with Bobby Robson – a great coach – and took on a great team – Porto. They had big names, big players, and dominated.

“Mourinho was lucky. He knew he would never dominate in small clubs. He came straight in to work with great players at a great club. Porto were lucky to beat United in the Champions League [in 2004] by scoring the last-minute equaliser at Old Trafford.

“I remember that game. There was a free-kick and Tim Howard made a mistake. So then it was all Mourinho, Mourinho, Mourinho. It was easy for Porto against Monaco in the final.

“Then he took over at Chelsea: good money, good players. It was just easy work, you know. Inter Milan – working for [Massimo] Moratti – great, a lot of money and good players again.

“At Real Madrid only one season was good but the next two seasons there were problems. Then back to Chelsea where there were problems as well. He’s a great coach – but that was an important season for Mourinho at Porto.”