Ahead Of The Manchester Derby Match, MU Coach Admits City Is Better

Rasmus Hojlund packed the brace when Manchester United won 2-1 over Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League. (Doc. Instagram/@manchesterunited)

JAKARTA - Manchester United (MU) will travel to Manchester City's Etihad Stadium, in the 2024-2025 Premier League continued, Sunday night WIB.

Ahead of the second derby match in the team, Ruben Amorim, the Manchester City coach, acknowledged that Manchester City was a better team than his squad.

"I think they (City-ed) are better than us in terms of understanding games, how to compete and confidence," said Amorim, quoted from the MU page in Jakarta, Saturday.

Therefore, the Portuguese tactician did not want to be fooled by Manchester City's poor results in their last 10 matches, where they were only able to win once and draw twice.

According to Amorism, City is a tough team and full of experience. Therefore, he considers the Josep "Pep" coach's club Guardiola to have the ability to bounce back at any time.

"Large teams always have a way of responding to any situation," said Amorim, as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, December 14.

Even so, Amorim did not want his squad to focus on themselves instead of the opponent.

Because, he continued, MU had a target to win the match.

"So our focus must be total. We already have a strategy to win the game," said Amorim.

Meanwhile, regarding how he responded to his first Manchester derby, Amorim admitted that he was enthusiastic, especially since the match was considered important by MU fans.

However, he estimates that the intensity of City's match against MU is not as high as other derbys.

"Ini hanya satu laga (dalam kompetisi-red) di mana kami melawan tim yang sangat bagus. Kedua tim pun tengah menghadapi masalah masing-masing. Jadi ini bukan derbi di mana kedua tim berjuang untuk juara. Saya berharap, ke depan, derbi Manchester dapat menghadirkan pertarungan seperti itu (untuk perjuangan tropi-red)," tutur Amorim.

Manchester City are now feeling a bad moment in all competitions. In the last 10 games, City have only won one and two draws. The rest ended in defeat.

City were also thrown into fourth place in the 2024-2025 Premier League standings with 27 points from 15 matches.

While MU tasted two defeats from their last three matches with Ruben Amorim. MU is currently in 13th position in the league standings with 19 points from 15 matches.

In the last five meetings between the two teams, City dominated the victory over MU with four wins over his neighbor. One more match is complete with MU's advantage.