Manchester City vs Manchester United: How do you beat Pep Guardiola's side?

Manchester City vs Manchester United, Super Sunday, Sky Sports Premier League from 4.15pm

By Soccer Saturday,

Image: How do you beat Manchester City?

Ahead of the Manchester derby, we want to know how you go about beating Manchester City.

United will be the underdogs when they take on City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

However, Jose Mourinho's side were the last team to beat Pep Guardiola's all-conquering team in the Premier League, when they came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in April.

We asked our Soccer Saturday pundits what approach United should take in order to repeat the feat of last year's famous comeback...

Phil Thompson

You have to admire United's resilience to come from 2-0 down last season, but you do not get away with that too many times in derby games. This will be a typical Jose side; he will have a plan of how to try and stop City - that has been Jose's mantra since he came here, to identify the opposition's strengths and work out how to nullify them.

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He knows his side is not at the same level as this City team so he will set them up to try and not concede. That is why you have seen his teams do better in the second half when they have been behind but he will hope to keep it tight and try and pinch something late on.

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Matt Le Tissier

It was a remarkable turnaround at the Etihad last year and that is the way they have to play - they have to be positive and confident and just try and back themselves. It is difficult because Jose obviously sees his defence as the weakness so he will want to try and protect that, but you don't go beating City by letting them come on to you, so the best way to try and get a result is to attack them.

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Paul Merson

City will give United chances - Southampton could have conceded 10 but they had chances. A better team would have scored three or four goals. But City beat teams easily who just sit there and defend so United have to be brave.

United have to play with a lot of pace in attack. I would play Romelu Lukaku with Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford on the wings. I would tell those two to stay high up and not track back in order to put pressure on Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker. If you allow the City full-backs the licence to get forward, then you are in for a long day.

City have got to defend better than they did in the second half of last year's game but they are capable of scoring three goals in 10 minutes - they are that good.

Image: Romelu Lukaku has missed Manchester United's last two matches

Charlie Nicholas

Just have a look at last season, when they were 2-0 down they went after City and they had some belief and pace about them. Now Jose will be cautious early on, but you have to go and attack Manchester City and see if you can put them off their game because if you just sit back and defend they'll win that game every time.

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