Our Manchester United fans here in the Transfer Tavern will be praying that Jose Mourinho can use the motivation of City winning the league against them to get his team fired up to halt the Guardiola party on Saturday. The last thing the Red Devils in the bar want to see is the sight of their local rivals lifting the Premier League in front of them at the expense of a win in the Derby.

The best United can hope for this season is to finish ‘best of the rest’- as the United boss put it in a recent press conference. This will surely anger a winner like Mourinho inside, and if that doesn’t give him and his team the motivation to succeed next season, the Reds in the bar don’t know what will.

United, on the whole, have been in great form this season, and are enjoying their most successful campaign in the Premier League since 2013. Having flirted with the outside of the top-four for large parts of the post-Fergie era, it’s refreshing for our regulars to see the Red Devils so high up in the league – which they should be using as a catalyst for next season.

If Mourinho wants to put a halt on the title-winning proceedings, then he has to rely on his players to perform against the sheer force that is Man City this season.

With that being said, our landlord has taken a look at Mourinho’s squad and deemed that these two players HAVE to play to in order to suspend the party at the Etihad for at least another week…

Ander Herrera

United need a dogged type of player to break up the play and get in Man City’s faces, especially in the midfield. The Spaniard is the perfect player for this type of job, and after returning from injury recently, he will be sure to impress Mourinho enough to start giving him more minutes on the pitch going into next season.

The current Player of the Year is a firm fan favourite and one that the fans propping up the bar know that he bleeds the red of the club. His desire to achieve is there for all to see each and every time he pulls on the jersey, furthermore, that kind of passion for the club is something the punters love to see, especially on a derby day.

Marcus Rashford

A local boy in the local derby is the stuff the fans on the terrace lap up. Rashford made an instant name for himself in his first derby match, after netting the winner – much to the delight of our regular Mancs in the bar.

Indeed, the pace and skill of Rashford is something that Mourinho should lean on and use for a quick counter-attack style against City, something that worked well for Liverpool in Guardiola’s only Premier League loss back in January. If there’s one man who can shock City, it’s the England international for sure.