Carrick explains Manchester United’s readiness for the Manchester derby
By Joel Masibo, September 13, 2026Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick says his side are relishing Sunday’s September 13, 2026 Manchester derby as they prepare to host Manchester City at Old Trafford.
United will welcome their neighbours for the 16:30 pm BST kick-off, with Carrick encouraged by the progress his team has made since he first took charge.
The former United midfielder guided the club into the current campaign with expectations significantly higher than they were when he initially faced City. He believes the confidence gained over recent months will help his players handle the pressure of the derby.
“It’ll definitely be different because no two games are ever the same, so it’s definitely going to be different. There’s no way we’re assuming: ‘We won last year, we can do the same things and everything will be the same.’ I understand the expectation. Everything was quite fresh and new then, and we didn’t really know where it was going to go.
“The players, myself, the coaches, you guys, were all waiting to see how it would go, and it was a quick turnaround. I think the confidence we’ve built over a period of time, and the feeling that we’re getting better all the time, I think that helps us. We know it’s a big game, we know it’s an important game. There’s a lot riding on it, that’s pretty obvious to say, but we’re looking forward to it. We’ve got a short space of time to recover and prepare, but we’ll make the most of it,” the gaffer explained.
Kings of Manchester
Carrick also rejected the suggestion that United should describe City as the current “kings of Manchester”, despite Elliot Anderson making that claim after his move to the blue half of the city.
The United boss acknowledged that his team still have considerable ground to make up but insisted they are determined to challenge at the highest level.
“I’m definitely not using that phrase at all, no. I understand it. Going into the Champions League game tonight and talking about the expectation, I think it’s a really good thing that [the expectation] has shifted. All of a sudden, different things are being asked of us compared with a few months ago. We’re in the Champions League, which itself shows the steps we’ve made, and we need to be in the later stages of that. We know the expectations around that, and we’re humble and realistic enough to know where we’ve come from in recent history. We need and want to be better and to be challenging more. That’s where we’re at. It doesn’t mean that we can’t and we won’t. We still hope, we believe and we expect that we can be and should be, but I understand the bigger picture.”
Carrick expects City to provide a major test, particularly after their strong start to the season under Enzo Maresca.
He praised their recent performances and warned that United will need to produce a complete display if they are to secure victory.
“They’re a very good team. They’ve had some really good results. I thought they were really professional the way they played against Porto the other night, and efficient in what they needed to do. They have players to choose from and rotate, and that’s the position they’re in. So yeah, they’re a good team. There are little tweaks here and there that I don’t need to talk about here, but we that we try to take from the game. We know we have to put in a really good performance and do a lot of good things to get the result we want.”
United injury concerns
The United manager also provided an update on Luke Shaw, who was rested for the midweek match against Sabah after failing to reach full fitness.
“We’ll have to see. We looked after him a little bit going into tonight. He wasn’t quite ready for it, 100 per cent, so we didn’t risk it. But we’ll see how he is over the next couple of days or so.”
Carrick was also pleased with Marcus Rashford’s return to form, saying the forward has quickly settled back into the team and has become a significant threat in attack.
“Really pleased with Marcus, yeah. Really pleased with him in so many ways. I think it’s pretty obvious with his performances. Again, he was a real threat again on Sunday, although, unfortunately, he didn’t get a little bit more success, but he was a real threat. I’m not really sure what else to say. We’re just really pleased to have him. He’s doing a lot of things really well and settled back in really quickly.”
Rashford was left out of the Sabah match partly to ensure he remained fresh ahead of the derby.
“A little bit of that, yeah, and trying to share the load a little bit, to a point, as well. We’ve got good options, so we’re trying to keep everyone fresh, but with a point where Ben can get good minutes tonight [against Sabah] and get him up to speed. There’s always a bit of a challenge in getting that right, but it was nice to keep Marcus fresh and ready for the weekend.”
With United facing City only a few days after their European commitments, Carrick is aware of the importance of managing his squad carefully. He said the team is developing enough depth to cope with the demands of a congested schedule.
“We only had five subs, so we had to make certain decisions on what that looked like. But of course, he’s like anybody else. He has played an awful lot, but I think we’re developing the group and the squad to be able to accommodate that in different ways. Tonight was just one of those things. There were decisions to be made and he ended up staying on.”