United and City will meet for the 170th time on Sunday.
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Van Gaal understands the nature of the game, and the emotion involved and is hoping that his team can replicate least season’s performance, when they won 4-2 at Old Trafford.
“He was a natural goalscorer, he was great to watch and he was a big player for United”.
Wayne Rooney has scored 11 goals in Manchester derbies (all competitions) – more than any other player – and no player has scored as many Premier League goals as he has by the age of 30 (187). Mourinho sees continuity in the current form with two consecutive clean sheets: “We have got two important results, three points in the Premier League after two matches without a victory, and against a direct rival in the Champions League we got a point away”.
Manuel Pellegrini admitted he was uncomfortable with Manchester City “s approach in the second-half of their stale derby stalemate with United but was satisfied with a ‘good draw”. There’s so little to choose between City and United in this department that we could easily have selected both the first choice full-backs from either club, but we’ve opted for one from each. We have to wait and see if we can develop as a team.
“Now it is time to be focused on the game, forgetting about the Champions League – hopefully we did that job on Wednesday – and play a good game on Sunday”.
“You can only say at the end of the season if we have minimised our gap with our competitors”.
“It’s a derby first, and second you get the chance to be ahead – that’s what we want”. I am in Manchester United and they are one of the best.
“We’ve done everything to help the recovery of the players”.
“We stayed in a hotel the next day. We didn’t train too hard today, to avoid injuries”, he added.
“We have to afford and we have to recover”.
“It’s still a match at a high level and a big travel”. Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box.
In player news, the home side remain without Luke Shaw, Paddy McNair and Ashley Young who all remain sidelined through injury.
English clubs have struggled in the UCL in recent years, and Van Gaal believes the fixture schedule in England is to be blamed.
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The Dutch coach said during his pre-match press conference on Friday: “I think for the fans, it’s very emotional”. Louis Van Gaal will look to keep the team fresh but consistant and I think Herrerra, Rooney and Martial are all going to start, Mata and Schneiderlein will also be key and I think the back line picks itself at this point.
