Sir Alex Ferguson praises Roberto Mancini's "mettle"

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has praised City counterpart Roberto Mancini's "mettle" as a manager ahead of Sunday's Manchester derby.

The respect between the two managers has been mutual in the build-up to Sunday's usually fierce clash between the two sides, with Mancini yesterday describing Ferguson as a "teacher".

"Roberto has done fantastically well," said the United manager in response.

"He has shown his mettle dealing with a lot of situations in recent times."

Mancini, 46, has had to deal with some difficult scenarios at the Etihad Stadium such as the continued problems with Carlos Tevez and colourful characters like Mario Balotelli and Ferguson doesn't think the Italian has received enough praise for his work.

"I find it quite amazing that he has not had enough praise for that. In fact I have seen very little praise for him on the subject," he said, referring to the Carlos Tevez issue.

"It all centred around what they were going to do. But he acted. He did his job. I think he has done it well."

Sunday's game kicks off at 1.30pm.