The Michael Carrick regime is off to a very hard start as he set to face Manchester City in his first game as the interim manager of Manchester United. The Red Devils will welcome their rivals, Man City to Old Trafford in an early Saturday kick-off in the Premier League.
After parting ways with Ruben Amorim only eight days ago, United have appointed Carrick as the temporary manager until the end of the season. It will be Carrick’s second time to be the manager after he briefly managed the team for three games in 2021. Currently, United sits in seventh position with 3 points less than the top four and has managed only one win in the last six league games.
The 44-year-old manager takes the responsibility of a team that is still struggling for consistency as they have drawn games against Wolves, Leeds and Burnley and were eliminated from the FA Cup after a 2-1 loss at home to Brighton. With two back-to-back league matches against City and leaders Arsenal, Carrick has to be very careful with his decisions.
Manchester City are in a very good form that their last defeat was about 13 matches ago in all competitions and most recently, they in a very convincing way defeated Exeter City and Newcastle United in the cups. Guardiola’s men are currently six points behind Arsenal in the title chase but the momentum is on their side after a series of league draws. January signing, Antoine Semenyo, has had a very good start, and Erling Haaland who is also continuing to haunt United has been involved in 11 Premier League goals against them.
The past results seem to be more favourable to the visitors as it is known that City has won more Premier League away games at Old Trafford than any other team, and in their last five league visits, they have shut out United four times.
United who have been given a big boost by the return of their key attackers from AFCON will want to rely on the Old Trafford crowd and a change in the managerial position to turn their fortunes around. Nevertheless, Carrick’s first encounter as the manager could be a tough one as against a very strong and settled City team, the champions are likely to just narrowly come out on top in a highly charged derby match.
