Louis van Gaal says Manchester City are a long way from ever reaching Manchester United in the eyes of the international community.
City are the defending Premier League champions, while United are currently without Champions League football for the first time since 1995-96, which led Peter Schmeichel, who represented both clubs, to suggest recently that Manuel Pellegrini currently managed the bigger side.
Ahead of Sunday's derby at the Etihad, Van Gaal dismissed that sentiment out of hand.
"I think it is so that the perception abroad is that Manchester United will always be bigger than City," he told the media. "Abroad we have more fans and followers on social media.
"Also Bayern Munich is the biggest club of Germany. The same thing for Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain. It [would take] a long time for Manchester City to reach that level."
United are currently four points behind third-placed City in the table, and have drawn their last two league games, but their hosts go into Sunday's match on the back of a draw and two losses in all competitions.
"I think it is being viewed as a good time to play Manchester City, but it is also dangerous," Van Gaal said. "[Assistant manager] Ryan Giggs has explained that in his analysis of City to the players, so on this subject you can see two sides.
"It can be better to play against Manchester City now -- I can see that -- but on the other hand, they shall be more motivated as they are playing Manchester United.
"They are looking for a good result, like we are."
City will be without key playmaker David Silva through injury but Van Gaal rejected that as a potential excuse.
"We are used to having injured players because we have [had] seven players injured all season," he said. "So what can I say? They have one player injured and they are out of the match?"