A big game for both.
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00:00 I'm joined with Michael Plant of Manchester World to discuss everything with Manchester
00:06 United and Manchester City. The two sides obviously meet this weekend in the Premier
00:10 League at the Etihad Stadium. Michael, just going into the derby, we've had a few derbies
00:16 since we've been talking and there's been different circumstances going into them. What
00:21 are the situations going into this one?
00:26 Well two teams who are very different places I suppose in terms of momentum, in terms of
00:31 how their season is going. City coming to the derby, they've won 16 out of 18, looking
00:39 pretty good I would say. They had those three games where they had lots of shots and lots
00:44 of possession and didn't actually score that many goals and then they flip it around and
00:48 do the opposite against Luton where they don't have as much possession but create a whole
00:52 load of shots and score six goals. I suppose the difference there is that Erling Haaland
00:58 was on form and when you have Haaland on form and scoring goals, well that can prove to
01:02 be a huge deciding factor. Obviously you've got Kevin Nebrojna in there as well, kind
01:08 of creator-in-chief. So I think that's from City's perspective. There are still these
01:13 issues about how they're setting up defensively. I think even the fact they conceded two goals
01:17 against Luton will be a concern. I think the fact that they keep so few clean sheets, I
01:21 think that there's always once, twice in a game where suddenly there's a mad scramble
01:27 for City defenders to get back and stop what looks to be a one-on-one situation. I think
01:32 that's the concern but overall they're playing well, certainly, I don't think you could argue
01:36 with that. And won 16 out of 18 as I say, it's a pretty ominous record. For United,
01:43 we are recording this before the Forest game so we don't know how that game is going to
01:47 pan out and if United lose it will only increase the pressure on Ten Hag and the questions
01:52 on him. United aren't, I've been in a relatively decent run of form in terms of results but
02:01 in terms of performances I think they've struggled and I think there is just a growing sense
02:05 that perhaps Ten Hag, is he definitely the right man? You've obviously got Ineos coming
02:11 in and the chances that Sir Jim Radcliffe is making. He didn't exactly give his unwavering
02:16 support for Ten Hag in his opening interview. So I think that's the big question about United
02:22 at the moment. You've got the other concern as well about injuries. Again, recording this
02:26 before Forest, don't know who's going to be available or not but United could be down
02:30 to four senior defenders against Forest. That includes Willy Kamwala who's only recently
02:37 come through as a youth team player himself. So real issue in terms of players out, they're
02:43 struggling to score goals. They don't have a left back, they don't have a striker available.
02:47 So many issues with the team at the moment and it is a ruthlessly efficient side against
02:54 a team that repeatedly underwhelms I suppose Manchester United. So that's where we're right
03:00 ahead of the derby and I'd be surprised if it's not a Manchester City win if I'm honest.