Gary Neville Explains Why Cristiano Ronaldo Is ‘Not A Big Loss’ For Man Utd Ahead Of Man City Game

But despite those initial claims, reports surfaced that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner is 'not injured' and has asked to be left out of Manchester's squad after being told he wasn't going to start against Pep Guardiola's men.

Ronaldo, who has scored 15 goals in all competitions this season, will not take part this weekend.

"United over the last three or four years, particularly under Ole [Gunner Solskjaer] were a counter attack team," Neville began.

"[They were] really comfortable sitting back, punching out through [Marcus] Rashford and others on the break.

"And I think that will be exactly the same today, and actually Cristiano not being in the team, I could never say it's a positive, but actually I don't see it as the big loss that I might do in other games.

"Because I actually think on the counter attack Manchester United need to be dangerous today, and they're better off with Rashford up front counter attacking than they would be with Cristiano I think."

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When asked to name a combined XI from United and City ahead of Sunday's Manchester derby, the former full-back and Richards failed to see eye-to-eye over the Portuguese.

"I can be really honest about it, I can go through them. [Ruben] Dias, [Aymeric] Laporte, [Joao] Cancelo, [Kyle] Walker – they're better than all of United's back four.

"Midfield, Fernandinho and Rodri are better than United's holding midfield players.

"Bernardo Silva, [Ilkay] Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne… Bruno [Fernandes] is the only one that I think could, over the last 12 to 18 months.

"But De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, [Riyad] Mahrez, [Phil] Foden, [Raheem] Sterling… I can't put Bruno into front of Silva and De Bruyne at the moment. It's a sad indictment really."

Richards responded: "I’m going to disagree and say [Cristiano] Ronaldo."

While a reluctant Neville hit back: "You can’t put Ronaldo in at the moment."