5-0 IS ROUT OF THE QUESTION

Guardiola: We are so different to Liverpool

PEP GUARDIOLA says Manchester City cannot go to Old Trafford today and stage a repeat of Liverpool’s emphatic 5-0 win.

Jurgen Klopp’s side ran amok at United a fortnight ago and could have won by an even bigger margin, such was their dominance over their fiercest rivals.

But Guardiola said his side cannot do the same against United, because Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his players have learned from the debacle and City’s ways are different.

“We cannot play like Liverpool play, because we have different players and different ways to play,” said Guardiola.

“If you look, in the last four, five or six years in the Premier League, at the games played by Livepool and City, you will know we play differently.

“We’re going to try and play our game as a team, but we have different qualities in a different way.

“Maybe right now, if United played Liverpool, they would play in a different way and it wouldn’t be the result they got at Old Trafford, because everyone learns from it. Every manager learns from what works or didn’t work and what you have to do to fix it.

“Football is not ‘copy and paste’. After that defeat by Liverpool, United changed the set-up against Tottenham and it worked. They also changed the set-up against Atalanta, but after they got an injury to Raphael Varane, they changed to a back four.

“I know from playing United in the Champions League that, when they’re losing, they put on a lot of strikers and, when they’re winning, they put on more defenders.” Guardiola cut through the emotion surrounding the derby by insisting it is nothing special to him, despite what is at stake for both sets of fans.

The City boss was asked if the derby was special for him, like it is for supporters of both clubs, and said he does not get caught up in the hype surrounding it.

“I don’t feel it,” said Guardiola. “I wake up and come here to the bubble in this training centre and I’m 12 or 14 hours here. Then I go home. I don’t go to restaurants or pubs.

“I can imagine how important it is for both sides, but I have to be cool in my mind and head, to know what we have to do, no more than that.

“Maybe for some people, of course it’s special – for the city, for many issues, but at the end it’s the same result, it’s not like a semifinal or final.”

On the threat posed by United, Guardiola said: “They have a lot of physicality, people with the ability to win games up front and good runners in behind, especially when Bruno Fernandes has the ball. They always have quality.

“We’ve had some good games against them, one game when we drew was a bit boring, when the teams were a bit scared.

“But they’re so good up front and now, with Cristiano Ronaldo, they are even better.”