Today is the day for Manchester City to go at Manchester United | OneFootball

Manchester City takes on Manchester United today at Old Trafford in the 198th Manchester derby. Pep Guardiola’s side needs to get back to winning ways after drawing their past three Premier League matches. They’ll face the unknown with Manchester United now being managed by Michael Carrick. Despite this, you do sense that today is the day for City to go at their arch-rivals at Old Trafford to help them pick up the three points they desperately need.

Manchester City need to dictate the tempo of today’s match.

We saw last season in the corresponding fixture between the two teams that Pep Guardiola set his side out not to lose. The Premier League meeting between the two teams finished nil-all last April. It was a game where Manchester City were doing what they had to in their bid to secure Champions League football. Today’s match is different, and you do sense that Pep Guardiola’s side will have to get at Manchester United to pick up three precious points today.

Manchester City will be aiming to control today’s match with their possession play. That is how Pep Guardiola sets his team up. While they will look to do this today, City do have the weapons to front to punish Michael Carrick’s side. Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku, Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden are all capable of splitting the 198th Manchester derby open. The hope is that City can play with a determination to dominate their opponent. If they do, they can get at United and it may well determine today’s result if City play in a decisive manner.

It would not be a surprise to see Manchester United sit deep defensively and look to hit City on the counter. In fact, it is almost expected. United have had success employing this tactic against Pep Guardiola’s side in the past. It is hard to see Michael Carrick being too expansive with his tactical approach today. If that is how the game plays out, City need to be on guard and they also need to take their chances when they arrive today. That way they can keep their arch-rivals at an arm’s length throughout today’s massive fixture.

Pep Guardiola knows that his team needs to be prepared for the unexpected.

Speaking during his pre-game press conference yesterday, Pep Guardiola knows that his team has to be prepared for the unexpected at Old Trafford. The Manchester City manager added that his team has to focus on themselves and deal with any tactical surprises that Michael Carrick may unleash. Guardiola told the media yesterday: “When you have more info of what the opposition manager does, you can give more info to the players. When you don’t have any info, you can’t give any info to the players so you focus on yourself.”

“Maybe with the line-up [announced] tomorrow we will have an idea, you can see what he did at Middlesbrough or the first part at Man United, but tactics are about the players and who they have will be different to Middlesbrough. So what they are going to do I don’t know.”

“ I don’t have a timeout after 10 minutes to say ‘guys Michael wants to do this. We don’t have time, when you don’t have info it’s better to focus on yourself.“

Final thoughts.

You do sense that today is the day for Manchester City to go to Old Trafford and take the game to Manchester United. With the attacking weapons at Pep Guardiola’s disposal, that seems to be City’s best path to victory today. Yes, City will look to control possession and take the sting out of the crowd. But you do feel that if City take the game to Michael Carrick’s side it will be their best path to a massive three points today.