Manchester United completed a smash and grab at The Etihad last season and Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City stars that their neighbours could spring another shock
Pep Guardiola has warned his stars to beware another derby day ram raid by Manchester United at The Etihad.
And the Manchester City boss has labelled today’s early season clash with United as ‘dangerous’ for his team as they attempt to bounce back after a stuttering start and back to back defeats by Brighton and Tottenham.
Even in difficult moments in recent years, United have shown themselves capable of springing a derby day surprise and that’s left Guardiola wary – especially with their cross town rivals currently above them in the League table.
Said Guardiola: “It always is (dangerous) against United. United is United – they have good players just look at what they spend in the last decade.
“They can beat us, of course. Do we want to be beaten tomorrow? No, because we need the points, we need to break the rhythm of two defeats.
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“But I don’t worry about what happened in the past. It hurts because we wanted those points to help us win trophies or be there at the end. Of course it is a special game for the fans and we will try to do it, yeah.”
Despite Manchester City’s Premier League dominance during Guardiola’s nine year reign, United have won four times at The Etihad while the Spaniard has been in charge.
The last time was in December when United winger Amad scored a 90th minute winner to stun Guardiola and his men on their own turf just 22 days after Ruben Amorim took over.
Amorim then helped guide his stars to a goalless Old Trafford draw to take four points from City and leave Guardiola still waiting for his first Premier League win over United’s new boss.
With injury problems for both bosses, Guardiola’s main decision is whether to drop James Trafford and hand new £27 million keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma a debut after his deadline day switch from Paris St Germain.
The Italian is a very different keeper to Ederson, who has been between the sticks for all of Guardiola’s successes in Manchester. But Guardiola has insisted he won’t ask Donnarumma to replicate the Brazilian’s incredible ability with the ball at his feet.
“Always I try to adapt the quality of the players. I would not demand to Gigi to do something he’s uncomfortable with,” said Guardiola.
“We are talking about one the best players I have seen in distribution, in short and long, I have seen with Ederson. We didn’t take Gigi to do what Ederson has done. Gigi has another quality.
“You’re talking about the wingers that we had in the past, for example, Riyad, Raheem or Leroy, it’s completely different than the wingers that we have now.”
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