Jose Mourinho insists Saturday's Manchester derby with City, for him, is purely about United keeping up the push for second place in the Premier League table.
The Blues can seal the title with victory but the manager is more concerned with his team's situation and wants the runners-up slot, in the face of strong competition from Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. Clearly, it is a case of bidding to obtain a positive result from the Etihad Stadium fixture.
"My motivation is to finish second," he said. "I still have the motivation to finish [in the] top four, because mathematically it is not done. It is a good distance but not mathematically done.
"So that's the first objective but, after that, I don't hide that in practical terms and next season, to finish second, third or fourth is exactly the same, because you don't win the title, but you qualify directly to the Champions League group phase. However, I prefer to finish third not fourth and I prefer to finish second not third and, because we are in the second position for many, many, many, many months.
"Obviously, it's our objective to fight for that and for that we need points, so my objective for tomorrow is to try to have the points that can help us to finish second."
The manager is, as always, keen to stress the derby should merely be treated as another game for United.
"In the end, the points are the most important thing," he added to MUTV. "In the end, it’s always a match of three points and not a match of seven, eight or nine points but there is also a little bit of the emotional difference in relation to other matches.
"But, in my case, I always try to play every match with the same mentality and responsibility and not try to make a derby an El Clásico as we used to call it in Portugal and Spain – a special match.
HCL football news.
HCL football news.
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