Michael Carrick described Manchester United\u2019s 2\u20130 victory over Manchester City at Old Trafford as the product of a straightforward plan: play to the team\u2019s strengths and execute the basics.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s win might have read as a wider margin. Three goals were disallowed for offside, the woodwork was struck twice and City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma produced several important saves. Carrick\u2019s side surrendered the majority of possession but adopted a direct, high-speed, high-intensity approach that recalled the \u2018United way\u2019 seen only intermittently in the 13 years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not for me to pick [Man City] apart publicly. We wanted to play to our strengths,\u201d Carrick told Sky Sports after the final whistle.<\/p>\n
The attacking width provided by wingers Amad Diallo and Patrick Dorgu stretched the pitch, a clear improvement on Ruben Amorim\u2019s time in charge, when the use of wing backs and inside forwards lacked the same impact. Dorgu scored the second goal, showing he can operate higher up the pitch despite making his name as a full back. Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring on his first appearance since Cameroon\u2019s elimination from the Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two wide lads, Amad and Dorgu, were fantastic both ways,\u201d Carrick said. \u201cMbeumo and Bruno [Fernandes], [Matheus] Cunha coming on and making the difference, [Mason] Mount nearly getting the goal. Everything was what we hoped for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrick added further on the team\u2019s priorities: \u201cI don\u2019t want to get carried away with all the DNA kind of thing. We wanted to play well and put things into the game that we thought we help that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe certainly wanted to be good defensively as a team. We felt we had a threat in transition. When we did have the ball, I thought we looked dangerous. I couldn\u2019t ask for any more. The boys took everything on tactically and dealt with it emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisandro Mart\u00ednez, who partnered Harry Maguire to contain Erling Haaland in their first start together for 11 months, echoed the manager\u2019s message. \u201cI think one important thing that Michael Carrick said was \u2018use the energy of the people\u2019 and, today, I think we did it,\u201d the Argentine defender told Sky Sports. The benefit is clear: \u201cWhen we are together like this, it is impossible to lose at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
United\u2019s scoring problems from last season had been addressed in 2025\/26, but defensive lapses had become the issue. Score draws against Burnley, Bournemouth, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest had cost points. Against City, goalkeeper Senne Lammens was barely tested and Mart\u00ednez praised the collective defensive effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick hailed United’s direct approach after a 2\u20130 derby win, crediting width and defensive unity..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969],"tags":[538,342,260],"class_list":["post-6022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-amad-diallo","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-bryan-mbeumo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}