Erik ten Hag has rejected the suggestion that his team would fear Manchester City ahead of facing their closest neighbours this coming weekend.

City won 3-0 at Old Trafford back in November and have been victorious in 14 of their last 15 games across four different competitions since mid-December. United have had their own decent run of results but remain a squad beset by injuries.

Even with an apparent mismatch, Ten Hag didn’t agree with the idea that United might have any reason to “fear” City when the question was put to him in his pre-match press conference.

“They have a good team but there are more good teams,” the Dutchman replied.

“They won everything last season, but we know and that is the challenge. But also Liverpool is a very good team and there are more good teams. We like the challenge and we are looking forward to challenging them.”

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Ten Hag also wouldn’t be drawn on Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s comments about wanting to knock City (and Liverpool) “off their perch” when the new co-owner borrowed a famous Sir Alex Ferguson phrase as he recently discussed his vision for the club. For the manager, it’s all par for the course.

“I think that has nothing to do with each other. But we want to win every game,” he explained.

“That is always our mentality and our approach in every game. It doesn’t matter who is the opponent. But, as I say, you always want to play against the best.

“Most of the time we feel, and you can also see it, the opposition get the best outputs against Manchester United. Maybe this game is the other way around but we know we have to give everything and show a team performance, if we want to get the result.”