Michael Carrick celebrated a dream start as Manchester United’s head coach with a momentous win in the Old Trafford derby.
Goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu gave Carrick a 2-0 victory over Manchester City in his first game since being put in charge for the rest of the season.
Pep Guardiola claimed that Diogo Dalot should have been sent off for an early challenge on Jeremy Doku, but the City boss accepted that the better team won the 198th Manchester derby.
‘It’s a great start, there’s no getting away from that,’ said Carrick. ‘Old Trafford is a magical place and it certainly was today. We all felt that.
‘It’s everything we could have hoped for. I’ve had a real sense for the last few days, and especially before the game, how much the players were desperate to give success and that feeling to the supporters.
‘It made me proud to watch my team. Putting things together quite quickly, coming in and trying to put a print on the team, and emotionally getting everyone attached to what we want to do. I felt that unbelievably from the staff and the players.’
Michael Carrick celebrated a dream start as Manchester United’s head coach with a momentous win in the Old Trafford derby
Goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu gave Carrick a 2-0 victory over Manchester City
United had three more goals ruled out for offside and hit the woodwork twice as they beat City for only the second time in the Premier League at Old Trafford since 2020.
‘We could have had more,’ added Carrick. ‘I felt like we looked dangerous in the game all the time.
‘We’re not getting carried away massively, but you’ve got to enjoy the feeling certainly when you get it.’
The new United boss challenged his players to replicate this performance for the rest of the season, saying: ‘That’s the challenge ultimately. I think it needs to be a version of normal.
‘There’s definitely a level of levels of standards and expectation that we need to live up to from ourselves as much as anyone on the outside, so I’m fairly aware of that.’
Lisandro Martinez paid tribute to Carrick’s influence on the team since taking over on Wednesday.
‘I think one important thing that Michael Carrick said was “use the energy of the people” and I think we did it,’ said Martinez. ‘When we are together like this, it is impossible to lose at home.’
VAR decided there was not enough force in Dalot’s challenge on Doku to upgrade referee Anthony Taylor’s yellow card to a red after the United defender caught his opponent on the knee with his studs.
‘A red card? Definitely,’ said Guardiola. ‘But it’s not about that. We will not grow up if that is the argument to win or lose a game. You have to do better and we didn’t today. The best team won.’
Bernardo Silva added: ‘I watched the clip and it’s a red card. It is what it is. This season the 50-50 decisions all go against us, they go for our rivals. But at the end of the day, this was not the reason we lost.’
Carrick disputed that view, saying: ‘I thought at the time Diogo actually got a foot on the ball, that’s from my angle. I thought he kicked it out, so I didn’t even for one second think it was a bad challenge. I got told there was a lack of force, and that’s why (no red card).’
