During the international break, Pep Guardiola may have been busy drawing up a masterplan that enables his Manchester City side to beat Manchester United on Sunday.
After losing successive Premier League games, if Manchester City dropped more points against Ruben Amorim’s side, it would be impossible to deny that a crisis has ensued at the Etihad Stadium.
The positives for Pep Guardiola will be that Jeremy Doku impressed against Kazakhstan and Abdukodir Khusanov could potentially face Manchester United despite his latest injury.
However, United have shown over the years that regardless of the circumstances, they are capable of springing a surprise on their local rivals and miraculously clinching an unforeseen victory.
Man City’s gameplan should be to target Man United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir
Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Andre Onana has agreed to join Trabzonspor on loan, which means that Manchester United could field either Altay Bayindir or Senne Lammens against Manchester City.
🚨🇹🇷 EXCLUSIVE: André Onana agrees to join Trabzonspor, here we go!
All contracts are now signed on player side, waiting on counter approval from Trabzonspor and travel next week.
Deal done on loan from Manchester United as revealed on Saturday, no buy option or loan fee. pic.twitter.com/PvSSOGViJS
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 7, 2025
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Considering it may be a risk to throw Lammens into the deep end against City, Bayindir could be given the nod by Ruben Amorim and Pep Guardiola should advise his players to target the Turkish goalkeeper.
Despite the 27-year-old making a mere 14 appearances for the Red Devils, he has made several high-profile errors, spilling the ball into Jaiden Anthony’s path for him to score against Burnley as recently as in his previous outing.
However, what especially bodes well for Manchester City is that Bayindir has erred in big games for Manchester United — famously letting Son Heung-min’s direct corner bypass him and parrying the ball into Dominic Solanke for his first goal in the same game as Tottenham Hotspur won 4-3.
Altay Bayindir looking on during Manchester United v Burnley
Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images
Set-piece coach James French has impressed Manchester City’s players and he would be particularly attentive of the former Fenerbahce shotstopper’s flaws while manning the net during corners — as even in United’s recent 1-0 loss to Arsenal — he was not commanding enough in the lead-up to Riccardo Calafiori’s goal.
Phil Foden has a strike on him and he tends to perform on derby day, and his teammates such as Rodri and Omar Marmoush could also cause Bayindir and Manchester United a nightmare if they shoot from range.
Altay Bayindir’s record for Manchester United
Even if Lammens were to start against the Sky Blues, as talented as he is, City should target the Belgian as a debutant like the 23-year-old could be nervy while making his United debut at the Etihad Stadium on derby day.
While Manchester City are expected to stay true to their possession-dominant style of play against Manchester United, they could reap the rewards of trying their luck from distance against either Lammens or Bayindir.
The latter, in particular does not have the best record in a Red Devils shirt.
ALTAY BAYINDIR’S RECORD FOR MANCHESTER UNITED SHIRT
GAMES 14
WINS 8
DRAWS 5
LOSSES 1
Bayindir has won eight, lost five and drawn one out of his 14 games as a United player.
As a result, Manchester City have every reason to believe that they could unsettle Bayindir at home into making an error.