Jose Mourinho has played down suggestions Manchester United have a height advantage heading into this weekend's Manchester derby - and issued a brilliant response.

The Red Devils have the Premier League's second tallest squad, reports the Manchester Evening News, and has potentially both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marouane Fellaini back this weekend.

United also have the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Nemanja Matic and Chris Smalling set to start.

Pep Guardiola has conceded City struggle at set-pieces but Mourinho laughed that there could be one mismatch in City's favour at the weekend.

"I think it will be easy for Kompany to compete against Mata in the air," Mourinho joked.

Juan Mata is hardly a giant (
Image:
Man Utd via Getty Images)
Vincent Kompany certainly isn't small (
Image:
Getty Images Europe)

Guardiola expects United to use their aerial advantage during the derby.

"We spoke a lot about defending set-pieces but they are taller," Guardiola said after City beat West Ham last week. "It will happen again next week against United so we have to try and concede fewer set-pieces."

City gave away 14 corners in their recent league wins over Huddersfield, Southampton and West Ham and conceded two of their goals from the set-pieces. Southampton's equaliser came via a cross which left-back Fabian Delph misjudged.

Mourinho believes an interesting encounter is in store (
Image:
Action Images via Reuters)

Premier League 'big six' matches tend to be over-hyped and the contests do not always enthrall supporters, but Mourinho is unconcerned about neutrals and fans' expectations.

"Football is unpredictable," Mourinho added. "You can try, you can try, me as a manager I can try to define a gameplan, to work in a direction, but football is unpredictable.

"We don't know what can happen, there are so many things that are out of control that can totally transform the direction of the game, I wouldn't risk saying what game we are going to have."

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