he is not motivated by the prospect of finishing
above Manchester City simply to claim bragging
rights over Pep Guardiola.
The 54-year-old remains the only coach to have
finished a league campaign ahead of Guardiola
during the Catalan's stellar career in the dugout,
with Mourinho's Real Madrid having pipped
Guardiola's Barcelona to LaLiga in 2012.
That record is poised to be broken this year, with
City sitting behind Chelsea, Tottenham and
Liverpool in the Premier League table with just six
matches to play, while a defeat to United in
Thursday's derby would see them slip two points
behind their city rivals.
Mourinho, however, claimed ending the season
above City will not matter in the least if United are
unable to claim a top-four spot in the process.
"It means nothing," he told a news conference. "If
we finish fifth and they finish sixth, we are above
them, and it means nothing. But if they finish third
and we finish fourth, they are above us but it
means a lot.
"It's not about Pep, it's not about City, it's about
objectives. We want to try to play Champions
League football and we still have two doors open
[the league and the Europa League]."
United are facing a minor injury crisis ahead of the
trip to the Etihad Stadium, with Mourinho
confirming on Wednesday that Paul Pogba is not fit
enough to feature.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling,
Phil Jones and Juan Mata are also unavailable,
leaving the visitors short of options for the
encounter.
The long-term future of Ibrahimovic remains in
doubt, with the striker unlikely to return following
knee surgery until the beginning of next year and
his contract due to expire at the end of this season.
Mourinho insists he is not concerned about the 35-
year-old's long-term plans, though, and is simply
anxious for him to recover as well as possible.
"I'm not interested in it, I don't care about it. I just
want the difficult surgery to go [well]," he said.
"We think he is in fabulous hands. The next step
will be something that he really wants, which is
what I was saying before the injury. He's much
more important than myself, what I want. I always
want the players to be happy, to choose their future
and I think this is what is going to happen.
"The future is a big surgery, a long period of
recovering, but the future is also in the hands of a
very strong guy. He wrote immediately on social
media that he will stop when he wants, not when
people think. So it looks for me that he is not going
to give up and I'm really pleased with that.
"He fought all his life. I don't see a reason for not
fighting."
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