Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick praised his players and staff after a 2-0 win over neighbours City, admitting the scoreline flattered the Blues, but second-half goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu secured three points in front of a happy Old Trafford crowd.
After the match, Carrick spoke to Sky Sports and MUTV, staying level-headed while acknowledging the significance of the victory.
Carrick described the week leading to the win as ‘controlled’. He said, “I’ve had some crazy weeks in my time, but, to be honest, it wasn’t actually a crazy week. It felt controlled and a bit normal, to be honest. From the outside, it always looks very different from what it’s like, and everyone at the club has been so good. My coaching staff, backroom staff, the players have been great. It hasn’t been the whirlwind it probably seems. The Reds had a compressed time to get the players ready for today. They’ve been unbelievable, this week, to cope with the information and the new people emotionally and to put it together in the way they did.”
However, the interim Manchester United boss was quick to mention that he would not get carried away by the result.
“I don’t want to get carried away with all of the DNA kind of thing. We wanted to play well today. We wanted to put things into the game that would help us to do that, we wanted to be good defensively as a whole team. We felt that we had a threat when he had the ball and in transitions at times, but when we did have the ball, I felt we did look dangerous. It’s an easy thing to say, but I couldn’t ask for any more from the boys. They gave everything. The Reds only had three days to prepare, and they took everything on board, tactically, and to be able to deal with it emotionally was exactly as we hoped for.”
Speaking further, he reflected on the magic of Old Trafford.
“I said yesterday it was a magical place, and certainly today, we all felt that. The players certainly had the emotion leaving the dressing room, and to finish it like we did, it would have been lovely to finish on a high with the goal [the disallowed one by Mason Mount] but the clean sheet was vital. The energy in the stadium, for everyone to feel it, means a lot and the Reds are going to use that fuel to excite us and drive us on to the next one.”
