United must produce a near perfect performance against City

Manchester United must produce a perfect performance if they are to have any hope of beating rivals City on Sunday. That’s the view of former Liverpool star Dietmar Hamann.

City have not lost a domestic game since April, and go into the game as one of the best teams in Europe. They are feared by everyone, and it’s fair to say Jose Mourinho’s men have a huge task ahead of them.

United will go 11 points behind Pep Guardiola’s side if they lose the game on Sunday, making it a mammoth task ahead in the race for the title. Therefore it is imperative that United make a big statement and win the game.

Hamann believes United have what it takes in order to beat City, but says they must produce a near perfect performance.

When asked how do you beat City, he said: “You have to defend well, you have to take your chances and you must not give them any easy opportunities.

“I think you have to cut out mistakes, if one team at the moment can beat them I would be looking at Manchester United because in these big games they are usually very stubborn and very hard to break down.

“They got a great result at Arsenal, where they had probably been outplayed for most of the game and came away with a result.

“You can’t give (Kevin) De Bruyne any space, he is the heartbeat of everything good Manchester City is doing. Obviously Pogba is a big loss, but you need to play a near-perfect game, take your chances and they have a good goalkeeper so they should be OK.

“I think over the last few years City have gone into the game as favourites and it’s the same this time around because they are going so strong in the league.

“It’s probably a game United can’t afford to lose because otherwise the gap might become too big with the way City is going at the moment.

“I think it’s very hard to make up five or six points, let alone nine or 10.”
[Quotes via Sky Sports]