It couldn’t be a better time to play Manchester City, but for Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim the timing of the derby won’t give his side any kind of advantage.
The Manchester derby will take centre stage on Sunday in the English Premier League at the Emirates Stadium, with both teams struggling to find form. Kick-off is at 6.30pm SA time.
City crashed to their seventh defeat in their last 10 matches in all competitions when they lost 2-0 to Juventus in their Champions League clash in midweek.
Following their poor run, the defending league champions City are in fourth place on the log with 27 points after 15 matches. Liverpool top the table on 35 points but have a game in hand. United, meanwhile, are in 13th place with 19 points from 15 games.
'We will fight'
"Of course, we know that we have a lot to improve. A lot of things are changing here but we will fight for the game,” said Amorim told MUTV.
"I have a huge respect for Manchester City but I'm just focused on Manchester United.”
"I am always looking forward to coaching Manchester United, especially in the derby but we have so much to focus [on]. We are focused on improving day by day, and we want to see different things.”
United come into the clash following two league defeats in a row, a 3-2 loss to Nottingham Forest on December 7 and a 2-0 defeat to title challengers Arsenal three days prior. Despite those results, Amorim said his team were making progress.
"I think we did a good job in the first half against Arsenal (in an eventual 2-0 loss), so we have that ability, we have players to do it, and we will try to do it again and try to win the game,” said Amorim.
Since those two league losses, however, United steadied the ship with a 2-1 Europa League win over Viktoria Plzen on Thursday.
“You don't (get) carried away about the winning -- we should win this type of game that we had Thursday -- so now we're going to another game we need to win.
”We lost the other two in the Premier League (Arsenal and Nottingham Forest). We have to have this feeling of winning these kind of games, and we will be ready.”