Rodri starts as City make three changes for United clash

Rodri has been named in the starting XI for the Manchester derby.

Our Ballon d’Or winner has been making steady progress in recent weeks and will start against the Reds.

Also coming in are Gianluigi Donnarumma and Rico Lewis, with James Trafford, Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly all making way.

Mateo Kovacic, John Stones, Savinho and Oscar Bobb are also injured and are unavailable for selection.

Omar Marmoush is also absent as he is still involved with Egypt at the 2026 AFCON.

TEAMS

CITY: Donnarumma, Lewis, Khusanov, Alleyne, Ake, Rodrigo, Bernardo (C), Semenyo, Foden, Doku, Haaland

SUBS: Trafford, Bettinelli, Reijnders, Cherki, Ait-Nouri, O’Reilly, McAidoo, Mukasa, Mfuni

MANCHESTER UNITED: To follow...

Formation and tactics

With Donnarumma back in  goals, Rico Lewis returns at right-back in Nunes’ absence, with Nathan Ake at left-back.

Abdukodir Khusanov and Max Alleyne continue their run in central defence, with Rodri guarding the back four.

Bernardo and Phil Foden complete the midfield trio, with the exciting wing duo Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku hopefully supplying opportunities for Erling Haaland.

attack  key for blues

It’s impossible to predict which Manchester United will turn up today, such has been their unpredictability this season.

City’s relatively inexperienced defence will have their hands full today, so getting forward as quickly as possible to our forwards will be crucial, with Doku and Semenyo capable of wreaking havoc.

Stats and facts

Manchester United lost the reverse fixture against City 3-0 in September. They last failed to score in both league meetings with the Blues in 1the 973-74, a campaign that saw them relegated from the top-flight.

City have won more Premier League away games against Man Utd than any other visiting side (9), while only Liverpool (41) have scored more goals at Old Trafford than the Citizens (37).

Manchester United have failed to score in four of their last five Premier League home games against Manchester City, including the last two in a row. They’ve not gone 3+ home league games without a goal against the Blues since a run of four between December 1911 and September 1914.

Manchester United have drawn each of their last three Premier League games, last having a longer run of consecutive draws in September/October 1992 (5).

City have drawn each of their last three Premier League games, last having a longer run of consecutive draws in October/November 2009 (7). This will be the first meeting between two sides both on a run of 3+ consecutive Premier League draws since February 2001.

Only Bournemouth (16), West Ham United (15) and Chelsea (15) have dropped more points from winning positions in the Premier League this season than Manchester United (14), while Manchester City have dropped four points in their last two games, just one fewer than in their first 19 matches of 2025-26 (5).

This will be Michael Carrick’s second stint as manager at Manchester United, following his three-game spell in November/December 2021 (W2 D1). As a player, Carrick only recorded more wins in the Premier League against Sunderland (16) than he did City (P24 W13 D3 L8).

Erling Haaland has been involved in more Premier League goals against Man Utd than any other City player (11 – 8 goals, 3 assists), having a hand in all three goals on his last appearance at Old Trafford in October 2023 (2 goals, 1 assist in a 3-0 win).

Only against Brighton (8) has City’s Phil Foden scored more Premier League goals than he has against United (7), though just one of his seven strikes against the Red Devils has come at Old Trafford.

Only Erling Haaland (12) and Igor Thiago (11) have been involved in more Premier League goals since the start of November than Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes (10 – 3 goals, 7 assists). Fernandes leads the competition overall for chances created following line-breaking passes (17) and line-breaking passes leading to shots (30) this term.