'A problem for everybody!' - Ruben Amorim dismayed by Pep Guardiola staying at Man City but relishing challenge of beating 'amazing' rival with Man Utd

The Catalan, who has led City to win six of the last seven Premier League titles, signed a two-year extension to his contract at the Etihad Stadium this week, keeping him at the club until 2027. Amorim won his last encounter with Guardiola as his Sporting CP side hammered City 4-1 in the Champions League earlier this month amid a woeful run of results for the Cityzens. But despite City's recent wobble, which got even worse on Saturday as they were thrashed 4-0 at home to Tottenham, Amorim said the news does not bode well for him and the other coaches in the league.

"I think it's a problem for everybody here," Amorim told a press conference. "But we have so much to do we cannot focus on anybody, we just have to focus on improving our club and not focus on the other clubs. [City] are amazing, if you can beat that team it's a good sign but we are focused on Manchester United."

Amorim is the fifth coach United have had during the time that Guardiola has been City manager. He said he felt a "huge responsibility" to guide the Red Devils back towards the top of English football.

He added: "The only way I have to try and survive this is to focus intensely on my work and there’s a lot to do here at our club. I know the expectations. High expectations can be a problem because we need to know how to manage these expectations – we know it will take time, we know it won’t be easy. We will have difficult moments, but the only way I have to progress is to focus on the practical things we have to do at training and get to know all the departments and prepare for the future of Manchester United."

Amorim revealed earlier this month that the thought of succeeding Guardiola had "crossed his mind" when Sporting's director of football Hugo Viana announced he was switching to City to take the place of departing Txiki Begiristain, while insisting he was 100 per cent sure about accepting the offer from United. City, however, have claimed Amorim was never on their agenda.

Amorim declined to target a long-term aim as United boss and said he was merely focused on winning his first game in charge at Ipswich Town on Sunday.

"We're taking things game by game and the current objective is a win against Ipswich," he said. "That’s the only objective and the only thing I have on my mind – to win the next game and have another week to work with the players, to have a better week and prepare the players for the next game. I know I will be judged at the end about [European] qualification and people will say whether that was enough or too little, or insufficient you could say. But my job is to prepare to win this game, have another week to prepare for the next game, then the next game and so on. I know it’s a very difficult job and know that not many people believe, but we saw this before in Portugal, let’s see what happens this time."