Jose Mourinho anticipates Manchester United will not have a lot of the ball against Manchester City

Jose Mourinho has admitted he has prepared his side to defend for most of the game against Manchester City.

The Manchester United boss named a surprisingly attacking side for the visit of City to Old Trafford and fans were speculating whether the Red Devils were planning all out attack against their local rivals.

Anthony Martial, Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford all started against City, but speaking just before kick-off Mourinho shot dead the idea it might be an attacking minded side.

The manager even hinted he was planning to park the bus in the Manchester derby.

‘It is not true,’ said Mourinho when asked if it was an attacking team.

‘When they have the ball you have to defend with eleven and when you have the ball you have to attack with eleven including the goalkeeper because the goalkeeper needs to know what to do when we have the ball. It’s as simply as that.’

He added: ‘When they have the ball we want to recover it and when we know the way they ball we will not have a huge percentage with the ball at our feet.’

City arrive at their bitter rivals aiming to set a new unbeaten Premier League record and end United’s hopes of beating them to the title.

United are eight points behind City in the table and a loss on Sunday could put the Sky Blues out of sight.

Mourinho has often been accused of killing ties against the big clubs in a bid to avoid defeat.

But, United were in scintillating form against Arsenal last week, playing an open game that required a masterclass from David de Gea.

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