Key events
“Dearest of Robs,” writes Ian Copestake, “while I have no fish in this water I do wonder if you were forced into a room with only a subscription and a TV and requested to watch either Arsenal or Man City what would be your preference? I guess I am poking the bear of City as sterile dominators. But Arsenal’s style I don’t really know about.”
Any chance I could just watch Jacob Bethell on loop instead?
The teams are in the tunnel. These teams.
Man Utd (possible 4-2-3-1) Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, Martinez, Shaw; Casemiro, Mainoo; Amad, Fernandes, Dorgu; Mbeumo.
Subs: Bayindir, Heaven, Malacia, Yoro, J Fletcher, Mount, Ugarte, Cunha, Sesko.
Man City (4-3-3) Donnarumma; Lewis, Khusanov, Alleyne, Ake; Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Foden; Semenyo, Haaland, Doku.
Subs: Trafford, Bettinelli, Reijnders, Cherki, Ait-Nouri, O’Reilly, McAidoo, Mukasa, Mfuni.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
‘An embarrassment of interregna’
One of these days, Tim de Lisle will write something about Manchester United that isn’t worth reading. But it hasn’t happened yet.
“I don’t agree with leaving Cunha and Sesko out,” says Joshua Keeling. “Surely in a game when you will have limited chances, you should pick all of your most dangerous players, who are most likely to take those chances for you? That said, I can see the plan – sit deep and play on the break. I hope it works – it’s worked against Guardiola before. Come on United.”
I can understand leaving Sesko out for this game but I expected Cunha to play as the No9 – as much for his personality as his ability to carry the ball.
Michael Carrick is the first manager of United or City to begin a spell in charge with a Manchester derby.
This is how Man Utd’s post-Fergie managers fared in their first derby; all were Premier League games.
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David Moyes 1-4 (A) 2013-14
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Louis van Gaal 0-1 (A) 2014-15
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Jose Mourinho 1-2 (H) 2016-17
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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 0-2 (H) 2018-19
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Ralf Rangnick 1-4 (A) 2021-22
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Erik ten Hag 3-6 (A) 2022-23
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Reuben Amorim 2-1 (A) 2024-25
Pep Guardiola’s pre-match thoughts
[On Man Utd’s tactics] No, I don’t know. They could play with a four or a back five; they could play with a false nine or Mbeumo up front. I’d love to know but we have to focus on ourselves.
[On the importance Rodri’s return] It’s not news! He’s so important. He was out for a long time, then he had a setback. We’re trying to manage his recovery.
City have a fine record at Old Trafford under Pep Guardiola: P11 W7 D2 L3. The last of those defeats was on the same weekend three years ago. It left City in big trouble in the title race, five points behind Arsenal having played a game more. They did the Treble that season.
Will Unwin
Manchester United, without a permanent head coach or European football and knocked out of both domestic cups at the first time of asking, are facing another bleak season. In the almost 13 years since Sir Alex Ferguson left, the club have struggled to find stability, with his shadow stretching down from the directors’ box to the dugout, emphasised by the stand named in his honour staring back.
Manchester City arrive at Old Trafford on Saturday in the opposite position, having had Pep Guardiola in post for a decade, amassing 18 major trophies. Michael Carrick will take charge of United for the first time since being appointed until the end of the season at a club who appear to be without a functioning long-term plan. This will be a campaign of only 40 competitive games for United, their fewest since 1914-15, with some fans thankful for being able to cut down on trudging visits. So is this, in the post-Ferguson era, the lowest of the lows?
Jonathan Liew
“It is all too easy to make mistaken inferences unless the process involved is already very well understood.” Francis Crick, molecular biologist
“This club is about winning, winning and winning again. It’s in our DNA.” Alvaro Arbeloa
You return in a blaze of glory, speaking of home and familiar feelings, feted in an official statement as one of the club’s “greatest legends”, entrusted with reinventing the riches of the past for a new footballing age. You leave in a maelstrom of snide briefings and chaotic performances, after losing a power struggle with star players and falling out of favour with the club’s godlike president. Let’s just say that Xabi Alonso got the full Real Madrid experience in his eight months as coach.
Obviously Alonso was appropriately reverent in his exit statement, expressing his gratitude for the opportunity, describing it as “an honour”. No point in burning your bridges when there’s every chance you might get invited back: after all, one of the more underrated ways of getting yourself hired as Real Madrid coach in the future is having done the job in the past.
Michael Butler
The three ages of Michael Carrick at Old Trafford
23 August 2006, Charlton 0-3 Manchester United The 25‑year‑old new signing was eased into United’s midfield as a second-half substitute in the second game of the season, having picked up a small injury on the pre‑season tour. With Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes suspended, Sir Alex Ferguson started with John O’Shea and Darren Fletcher in central midfield, with the Scot (sporting a mullet) opening the scoring after Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo had hit the woodwork. Carrick was one of four future United managers in the side, alongside Fletcher, Giggs and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who rounded off the win with a late goal after Louis Saha had doubled United’s lead. Solskjær’s goal was his first in the league in three injury-hit years, and the Norwegian, also a substitute, should have had another when Carrick squared a perfect pass to the striker, only for Charlton’s Scott Carson to make an outstanding save. With Carrick an instant success at United that season, the club roared to the title in May 2007, their first in four years.
Manchester United (4-4-2) Van der Sar; Brown, Ferdinand, Silvestre, Evra; Ronaldo, O’Shea, Fletcher, Park (Carrick 77); Giggs (Solskjær 82), Saha. Subs not used Kuszczak, Rossi, Richardson.
Team news
Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo are back in the Manchester United side after returning from Afcon. Both Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko are on the bench so it’s not clear who is playing up front for United, or what formation they’re playing. I’ve listed it as 4-2-3-1 below but it could be a 3-4-3 with Bruno Fernandes as a false nine.
Overall Michael Carrick makes five changes to the team beaten by Brighton in the FA Cup. Mbeumo, Amad, Casemiro, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw are preferred to Cunha, Sesko, Manuel Ugarte, Leny Yoro and Mason Mount.
Max Alleyneson of the former England cricketer Mark, continues in defence for injury-hit City. There are three changes from the Carabao Cup win at Newcastle. Gianluigi Donnarumma, Rico Lewis and Rodri come in for James Trafford, Matheus Nunes (who has the flu) and Nico O’Reilly.
Man Utd (possible 4-2-3-1) Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, Martinez, Shaw; Casemiro, Mainoo; Amad, Fernandes, Dorgu; Mbeumo.
Subs: Bayindir, Heaven, Malacia, Yoro, J Fletcher, Mount, Ugarte, Cunha, Sesko.
Man City (4-3-3) Donnarumma; Lewis, Khusanov, Alleyne, Ake; Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Foden; Semenyo, Haaland, Doku.
Subs: Trafford, Bettinelli, Reijnders, Cherki, Ait-Nouri, O’Reilly, McAidoo, Mukasa, Mfuni.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
Manchester City are closing in on signing Marc Guéhi from Crystal Palace. The centre-back’s contract expires at the end of the season and Palace have accepted an offer of £20m.
Palace’s manager, Oliver Glasner, said on Friday that the deal was in its final stages, on a day when he also revealed he would be leaving the club in the summer. Guéhi, he said, would not be involved in Palace’s game at Sunderland on Saturday. “I can’t confirm a club, because it’s still not done, but it’s in the final stages,” Glasner said. “The result is that Marc doesn’t play tomorrow for us.”
The England international almost joined Liverpool in the summer before Palace pulled out of the deal. Personal terms are not thought to be an issue for Guéhi, who has said he would not extend his Palace deal.
City have injuries in central defence. Rúben Dias is out with a hamstring injury, Josko Gvardiol has a tibial fracture and John Stones, who is unlikely to have his contract renewed in the summer, is out with a thigh problem. Pep Guardiola was forced to recall the 20-year-old Max Alleyne from a loan at Watford to help alleviate the shortage.
Jamie Jackson
Michael Carrick has refused to rule out becoming Manchester United’s permanent head coach at the end of the seasonwith the interim denying the club has become “soulless”.
Carrick was appointed as Ruben Amorim’s replacement on Tuesday, briefed with overseeing United’s final 17 games of the season. He arrived after Darren Fletcher’s two-game spell in charge that took in a Premier League draw at Burnley and an FA Cup third-round defeat by Brighton at Old Trafford.
United wish to assess several candidates for the permanent head coach role in the summer. Thomas Tuchel, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto De Zerbi, Andoni Iraola, and Oliver Glasner, who confirmed on Friday he will leave Crystal Palace at the end of the season, are among the names in the frame.
Carrick played for United for 12 years, was a coach for three years before departing in December 2021, having also managed the team for three matches after Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s sacking in November that year, and indicated on Friday that he wants his return to the club to be long term.
“I’m here because I enjoy the role and I wanted to do it and I’m hugely privileged to be in this position,” said the 44-year-old. “It doesn’t change whatever the term or whatever the length.”
Preamble
In the summer of 2016, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho arrived in Manchester. For both men, both clubs, both fanbases, the hope was that a rivalry would develop to match the intensity, quality and longevity of Sir Alex Ferguson v Arsene Wenger. Instead Mourinho started setting fire to every bridge in sight after a couple of years and the world move on.
Guardiola is still living in Manchester. Today he comes up against his sixth Man Utd manager: Michael Carrick, who like Guardiola spent his playing career making a compelling case for the primacy of brain over brawn.
Whether that will be the case today is another matter. Derbies aren’t traditionally a celebration of the cerebrum; and for City in particular, the result is all that matters today.
City are six points behind Arsenal with 17 games remaining. If they are the next to blink, their chances of winning a seventh Premier League title under Guardiola will probably be over. That, alone, should be enough incentive for United.
Kick off 12.30 p.m.
