Van Gaal: Man. City Are Favourites In Manchester Derby

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal says Manchester City will go into this weekend's derby match as favourites.

United face their rivals at Old Trafford on Sunday and Van Gaal believes his side are the underdogs, based on the two club's current league positions.

"When you look at the facts, they are first and we are third," Van Gaal said.

"There's goal difference, points difference - they are first, so they are the favourites I think."

United will have had just four days to prepare for the derby after travelling to Russia in the Champions League in midweek.

United drew 1-1 away at CSKA Moscow on Wednesday, but Van Gaal expects his players to be fully recovered in time to face the Premier League leaders on Sunday.

"I think we shall recover from the Moscow trip," Van Gaal added. "We've done everything to help the recovery of the players. We didn't train too much today, to avoid injuries.

"We have one day less [to prepare than Manchester City] but we have to do it and that's what we're doing. We hope we can beat City."

Van Gaal also revealed that he has almost a fully fit squad to choose from for Sunday, with only Paddy McNair, Ashley Young and Luke Shaw unavailable for selection.

Young missed the draw in midweek but has since returned to training after recovering from a calf injury, but the winger is not yet fit enough to return to first team football.

"It's always better that a manager can select from a lot of players," Van Gaal said. "There have been times when I could not select from many, like last year, but this year is going much better."

The former Ajax and Barcelona boss guided United to a 4-2 victory against City at Old Trafford last season, but denied it was his best game in charge of the club last term.

"It was certainly not my best moment because I think we started badly in that match," he said.

"Of course we won but it cost us a lot of energy. We played better matches last year."

Credit: Skysports.com