Kevin De Bruyne discusses the impact the Manchester Derby has on both sets of supporters.
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The ESPN FC panel share their predictions for the first Manchester derby of the season.
Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea hails “imposing” Zlatan Ibrahimovic ahead of Saturday’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford.
– Guardiola is the first Manchester City manager to win his opening five games for the club, now holding a 100% record in both the Premier League and Champions League (qualifying).
In his autobiography I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Swede branded Guardiola a “spineless coward” over the way he felt he was treated at Barcelona.
And City and United have invested heavily in their squads over the summer with Mourinho breaking the world transfer record with the £89 million signing of Paul Pogba.
“In this moment, he doesn’t play and they have an fantastic, rich squad in options”. I have played in all of them, the only one I missed was this one.
“The people who go to Old Trafford tomorrow, they go there not to see me and Jose on the side, they’re going to see all the big fantastic players out on the field”. We speak through our players, through our games, not what we’re talking about here. It’s two class teams with different styles of play.
“We met in the Premier League meeting”. It is normal between managers and players you have more connections with some than others, but that doesn’t mean you hate each other.
“There’s a lot of excitement, a lot of emotion in Manchester; we just hope it is us who take the three points”. We know the formation, we know their dynamic.
“They have so many options that for us in the preparation of the game, we have to go step by step, we have to go situation after situation because we try to reduce the unpredictability of the game, you know?” Now, the managerial foes are in the same city, bringing an extra layer of intrigue to the always-electric Manchester Derby. We know they have so many options, so that for my players is more hard. “I have played in many derby games, I’ve played in the El Clasico, the Inter/Milan derby, Ajax and Feyenoord which was the big one there [in Holland] and PSG/Marseille”. Hopefully at the end we can win it for the fans and that will be a big boost for them.
“He has given me confidence and I will give everything”. It can turn so quickly in football.
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“There will be a lot of challenges, the crowd will be behind us so it will be a good game”.
