Manchester City will take on Manchester United in the much awaited Manchester Derby this Saturday but this high profile game holds much less value for the league leaders especially with a clash against Liverpool coming up next week.
If City manage to pick up all three points at home against the Red Devils then they will be crowned Champions and Guardiola was planning to go all out and wrap up the league against their biggest rivals. But the embarrassing midweek defeat to Liverpool might force the Spanish manager to take a very different course of action.
We take a look at Man City’s predicted line up vs Man United:
Man City team news:
The biggest cause of concern for Pep Guardiola as of now is whether Sergio Aguero can make himself fit before the Manchester Derby.
Aguero has been missing from action for almost three weeks now but the Argentine is fast-tracking his way back to full fitness and could very well feature in the weekend clash.
Guardiola will most certainly give a much-deserved rest to Vicent Kompany ahead of City’s clash versus Liverpool next week. English International John Stones will take up his place in central defence alongside Nicolas Otamendi.
Fabian Delph has also not featured since he was sent off against Wigan but the left-back might be back into the squad after having made it to the bench during the Champions League clash.
Kyle Walker will hopefully be rested and Danilo will take up his place in right-back.
Kevin De Bruyne had a very bad performance and it seems as if Guardiola will think of resting him during the weekend so that he can get back his energy before the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.
Bernando Silva will return back to the playing XI and will start in midfield alongside David Silva and Gundogan.
Raheem Sterling came on a second-half substitute against Liverpool in midweek but the 23-year-old will surely start against Manchester United on Saturday.
Man City’s predicted line up:
Goalkeeper: Ederson
Defence: Delph, Otamendi, Stones, Danilo
Midfield: David Silva, Gundogan, Bernardo Silva
Attack: Sane, Aguero, Sterling
Pep Guardiola will most certainly treat this derby with the utmost importance and try to wrap up the league on Saturday but there’s no denying that the City boss will have one eye on the game against Liverpool.
