“If we don’t concede, we’ll score at any moment” – Fernandes explains how Man United plan to beat City

Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes says United’s main focus in Saturday’s Manchester derby will be keeping Man City out.

Fernandes notes that the team can’t afford to make mistakes against Pep Guardiola’s side, saying if they don’t concede, they can score at any time and snatch victory.

“For us it is, ‘stick to the plan’, defend well. ‘Don’t concede goals’ is the main point for us because we know we have goals in the squad and players who can score. If we don’t concede, we will score at any moment,” Fernandes said.

“The main point for us is to defend well as a team. We proposed to everyone in the dressing room after that defeat against Liverpool [5-0] that we cannot concede so many goals. David de Gea has been brilliant for us, making many, many saves and still we conceded a lot of goals in many, many games.

“We have to protect him and everyone has to protect the ones behind: the forwards have to protect the midfielders, the midfielders protect the defenders, and the defenders protect the goalkeeper.

“At the end we will protect ourselves from conceding goals and the quality we have on the team, at any moment we can score goals and we will.”

If United beat City, the two clubs will be level on points. However, if they lose, United could fall to as low as 10th in the league table.