Pep Guardiola has vowed to halt the slump engulfing Manchester City and insists he has no regrets about his contract extension, but admits no one is immune from being sacked.
All eyes will be on the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon – live on Sky Sports – as Ruben Amorim looks forward to a statement result in his first taste of the Manchester City clash.
The Portuguese has already masterminded a win against City in the last six weeks, after Sporting sealed a stunning 4-1 win in the Champions League in his penultimate match before heading to United.
It is one of seven defeats Guardiola's stumbling side have suffered in a 10-match run that has seen just one win, but Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes dismissed suggestions that this is a good time to face them.
Guardiola told Sky Sports exclusively: “[The owners] If we know when the situation is bad and we start losing games, then it is not sustainable. Then I wouldn't be here next month or in the next two months.
“The results dictate that – and this is the reality. We cannot lose games forever. Maybe because what we have done in the past [people will think I wouldn’t be sacked] but as managers we are assessed daily.
“In a bad season you can be out. The club knows I won't do that [resign]. The club should do it. I want to be close to the players. I want to be next to them. We lost a lot of games, more than in two seasons.
Something is wrong, but I put myself first and think about what I can do better. In Turin [Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat to Juventus] we had four players from the academy, so we can see the reality.
“It will be the same in the next game and it has been the same for the last month. You can survive a few games, but we have been doing it for more than a month with players with a lot of minutes in their legs.” .
“It's not because they don't want to. It's because of the calendar, the schedule. We're going to play in the Club World Cup in Orlando next summer and then we have to start the Premier League three weeks later. That's impossible.” .”
Is football becoming untenable for the players?
“Of course,” Guardiola added. “But the show must go on and it will go on. If Rodri doesn't play, another player will come in. The Premier League is defending their cause, so I'm defending mine. My business is my players. My success is my players and I want that also.” protect them.
“These players did something that no other team in this country has done and these players would have done it again if it wasn't for the schedule.”
Guardiola recently committed his future to City for at least two more seasons, but that coincided with his side's poor form. While the Catalan accepts he is not immune to being fired, he has no regrets about putting pen to paper until the summer of 2027.
“Absolutely not,” Guardiola said at his press conference on Friday. “I would regret it if I left now. I would sleep even worse than I do now. There is no way I would leave the situation as it is now.
'They can fire me. That could happen if we continue like this, but there's no chance of leaving now. As my boss, Khaldoon, [Al Mubarak] is not happy with me, they can do it, but now that they leave in that position, there is no chance.
“When I feel it's time to leave, I will leave. I don't have any purpose, I would say, that is going to make me, my life or my journey here or my time here completely different. Impossible.
“If I leave tomorrow, or if I leave later… I will have been the best. At this club I will never, never, never forget it. I won't wait to win another Premier League or Champions League.” , No.”
The determination clearly still burns within Guardiola.
So would City getting back to their best and winning another Premier League title be Guardiola's greatest achievement given his side's steep decline?
“The greatest achievement has already been achieved,” Guardiola added, referring to his treble-winning season. “We are not the best because we have the players, otherwise Liverpool will come close.
“But now we realize how hard it was and when we come back we'll be… wow.
“But if I lose another month and lose at the end, I say, guys, take on someone else to solve this stuff because it can't last forever.”
Fernandes urges United to forget Man City's problems
Bruno Fernandes says United should focus on solving their own problems ahead of the derby, rather than thinking about City's miserable recent form.
“It doesn't change anything for us, how they are at the moment, because we have to think about ourselves,” the United captain said.
“We all know this is a huge game and they have big players. They probably don't win as much as anyone would expect them to.
“But we have to focus on ourselves because we are not at the level we want to be, so we cannot think about the momentum of the others.
“We just have to think about ourselves and do the work we have to do to get into better positions. We need points in the league so it doesn't matter who we play against.
“We know it's City, a huge derby. We know what it means for the fans and it means a lot for us too, so we just have to go to the game and win without thinking about who we have in front of us.”