Ruben Amorim has said Manchester City are in a “better place” than Manchester United ahead of the derby on Sunday despite Pep Guardiola’s team losing seven of their last 10 games.
City’s Champions League defeat to Juventus on Wednesday means the Premier League champions have won just one of their last 10 matches.
United, meanwhile, fought back from a goal down to beat FC Viktoria Plzen 2-1 in the Europa League on Thursday.
Amorim is preparing for his first Manchester derby this weekend and insisted that City are still more likely to win at the Etihad Stadium despite their recent struggles.
“The great teams can respond in any moment and I think they are in a better place than us in type of understanding the game, the way they play, the confidence they have,” said Amorim, whose Sporting CP side beat City 4-1 in the Champions League before he made the move to Old Trafford.
“Even in this kind of moments, we have a lot to focus on in our team. We will face a great opponent and I’m more focused on our problems. We have a lot of issues here.”
United go into the game at the Etihad 13th in the table while City have slipped behind Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in the title race.
The two Manchester teams have gone head-to-head for the Premier League trophy before — notably in 2012 and 2013. Amorim is hoping his United rebuild will eventually lead to derbies being contested for the biggest trophies.
“I cannot treat it like a normal derby,” he said.
“It should be like two great teams fighting for the title, and it is not that in this moment. So it is just one more game with a very good opponent. Both teams are struggling in the moment so I hope in future I can feel that real feeling of a derby [that has title implications].”
Before agreeing to become United’s head coach, Amorim was linked with the City job before Guardiola signed a new contract.
Close friend Hugo Viana is set to make the move from Sporting CP to City to take over as director of football from Txiki Begiristain, who will leave the club at the end of the season.
Amorim, though, insists it was a never an option to follow Viana to the Etihad.
“Never,” he said. “I never heard from them and this was my only option.
“When Manchester United talked to me I had no doubts. I had already something in my mind that [the United job] could be a possibility. With Manchester City or Viana? Nothing about that.”
Amorim, meanwhile, has offered his backing to goalkeeper André Onana after another costly mistake against Viktoria Plzen.
It followed a disastrous performance during the 3-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest when a speculative shot from Morgan Gibbs-White went straight through him for Forest’s second goal.
“You have to take it like it is,” Amorim said. “He had already, in the past, a past situation like that. We have to work on this.
“If you see the play we are trying to build up a lot with the goalkeeper making the bounce [pass] with Matthijs [De Ligt]. This time we have a disconnect a little bit during the play. And when we try this we suffered a goal. A difficult goal for us.
“But we managed [against Plzen], not like against Nottingham. We managed to help Onana. Like he did in the past for us.”
