Manchester United will 'be worried' about facing Manchester City, claims Yaya Toure: 'That's going to make them very dangerous on the counter'

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Yaya Toure claims Manchester United will fear rivals Manchester City in Sunday’s Old Trafford derby, but has warned his teammates not to get caught on the counter-attack by Jose Mourinho’s side.

City were punished by Shakhtar Donetsk when they suffered their first defeat in seven-and-a-half months in Ukraine on Wednesday night, and they are expecting United to play a similar way.

On the eve of the Champions League tie, Toure claimed that City are the best attacking team in Europe. He believes that will make United more cautious, but is concerned his team are not hit by a Mourinho sucker punch.

Yaya Toure says Manchester United will be worried about Manchester City in Sunday's derby

City suffered their first defeat in seven-and-a-half months against Shakhtar Donetsk this week

‘I think when you see United, they are going to be worried about us,’ said Toure.

‘That’s going to make them very dangerous on the counter-attack and we have to be ready for that. Otherwise we will see the game they played against Arsenal a few days ago, so we have to be careful.

‘We need to have a big performance on Sunday. It’s going to be difficult because the way you saw Shakhtar play is the way United will play. Very fast and very strong on the counter-attack. We have to be careful and, of course, we are going to train hard and try to be ready.

First meets second when the two Manchester sides clash at Old Trafford in the Premier League

‘I think it’s going to be a tough game. A derby is a derby, I don’t have to explain,' Toure says 

‘We don’t want to lose. We have to keep this kind of gap on United because now, when I see United playing games against big teams, they always wait for a mistake to hit them on the counter-attack.

‘I think with players like (Romelu) Lukaku, (Zlatan) Ibrahimovich and (Jesse) Lingard is playing well. (Marcus) Rashford and (Anthony) Martial, they’re very fast.

‘I think it’s going to be a tough game. A derby is a derby, I don’t have to explain. The team is going to be hungry, and it’s about who wants it more. I don’t want to promise that it will be 50-50 because United are in a good moment as well.’

City hold a commanding eight-point lead over United going into the game, but Toure does not believe that victory for Pep Guardiola’s side would strike a decisive blow in the title fight.

Pep Guardiola's side can stretch their lead at the top of the table to 11 points with a victory

‘That’s the tricky thing because I remember in 2012 when we won the league, United were first and had an eight-point lead, but we came back,’ said the Ivory Coast midfielder.

‘You have to be careful because the Premier League is such a tough league. You can’t relax. It will be tough in the second half of the season, especially against the sides who are fighting not to be relegated. We have to be aware of that.’

David Silva, Vincent Kompany and Fabian Delph are all expected to be fit for City despite missing the Shakhtar game through injury and illness.