Reuben Amorim has said. Manchester City are in a “better place” than Manchester United Pep Guardiola’s side head into Sunday’s derby despite losing seven of their last 10 games.
City Champions League defeat To Juventus Buddha means Premier League The champions have won just one of their last 10 matches.
Meanwhile, United fought back from a goal down to beat FC Viktoria Plzen. 2-1 Thursday in the Europa League.
Amorim is preparing for his first Manchester derby this weekend and insists City are more likely to win at the Etihad Stadium despite their recent struggles.
“Big teams can respond at any moment and I think they’re in a better place than us in terms of their understanding of the game, the way they play, their confidence,” Amorim said. Sporting CP The side beat City. 4-1 in the Champions League before moving to Old Trafford.
“Even in moments like this, we need to be very focused in our team. We will face a great opponent and I am more focused on our problems. We have a lot of problems here.”
The Etihad are 13th in the United table, while City remain behind. Liverpool, weapon And Chelsea in the title race.
The two Manchester sides have met for the Premier League trophy before — notably in 2012 and 2013. Amorim hopes his United rebuild will see the derbies compete for the biggest trophy.
“I can’t treat it like a normal derby,” he said.
“It should be like two great teams fighting for the title, and that’s not the case at the moment. So it’s just another game with a very good opponent. The real feeling of a derby. [that has title implications]”
Amorim was linked with the City job before Guardiola signed a new deal, before agreeing to become United’s head coach.
close friend Hugo Vienna is ready to move on. Sporting CP will take over as director of football from City to Txiki Begiristain, who will leave the club at the end of the season.
Amorim, though, insists it was never an option to follow Vienna.
“Never,” he said. “I never heard from them and that was my only option.
“When Manchester United spoke to me, I had no doubts. I already had something in mind. [the United job] Could be a possibility. With Manchester City or Vienna? Nothing about that.”
Amorim has meanwhile offered his support to the goalkeeper. Andre Ona After another costly mistake against Viktoria Plzen.
He performed disastrously during this period. 3-2 loss To Nottingham Forest Ever since a speculative shot was fired. Morgan Gibbs White Goes straight through it for Forest’s second goal.
“You have to take it as it is,” Amorim said. “They have already suffered from this kind of past situation in the past. We have to work on it.
“If you watch the game, we’re trying to create a lot by bouncing the goalkeeper. [pass] With Matthijs [De Ligt]. This time we lost touch a bit during the drama. And when we tried that, we faced a goal. A tough target for us.
“But we managed. [against Plzen]not favored against Nottingham. We managed to help Ona. As he has done for us in the past.”