Carrick was appointed Man United head coach until the end of the 2025-2026 season, and his first match was against Pep Guardiola's Man City.
After being eliminated from the FA Cup by Brighton, now all of Man United's focus is on the Premier League and everything is still open for the race to win a Champions League spot.
Force information
Amad and Bryan Mbeumo have returned to training in Carrington after excellently completing their tasks at the African Cup with the Ivory Coast and Cameroon teams. Noussair Mazraoui is still participating in the tournament, as the host country Morocco faces Senegal in the final.
Harry Maguire returned to play in the match against Brighton, but Matthijs de Ligt still has to sit out. Shea Lacey will be suspended after receiving a red card in the FA Cup for two yellow card fouls.
Man City signed Antoine Semenyo in January 2016 and this player has had his first matches for the new team. But Ruben Dias (strap injury) and Josko Gvardiol (leg injury) are both sidelined, along with John Stones. Max Alleyne, a 20-year-old player who grew up from the academy, has regularly played as a center-back for The Blues.
Omar Marmoush is still participating in AFCON with the Egyptian national team, while Savinho and Oscar Bobb have recently been absent.
Performance
Both teams are looking for their first victory in the top league of 2026 and entered this match after three consecutive draws in the national championship.
In the most recent home match in the Premier League, Man United was held to a draw by Wolves, before the away matches against Leeds and Burnley also ended in a draw.
Man City was held to a draw in the final minutes of the draws with Brighton and Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium, after a goalless draw with Sunderland on New Year's Day.
However, Guardiola's team has shown formidable strength in cup tournaments, defeating Exeter City in the third division with a score of 10-1 in the FA Cup before gaining an advantage in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals against Newcastle United.
Semenyo has quickly integrated since moving from Bournemouth, scoring goals against Exeter City as well as Newcastle.
Statistics
This will be Carrick's second time as Man United's head coach, after three matches in November and December 2021. When he was a player, Carrick had 13 wins against Man City, a record only second to Sunderland (16 times).
Only Erling Haaland (12 goals) and Igor Thiago (11) have participated in more goals in the Premier League than Bruno Fernandes (10 - 3 goals, 7 assists) since the beginning of November.
Fernandes leads the Premier League in terms of total chances created after passes that broke the defense (17) and passes that broke the defense leading to shots (30) this season.
The Man United vs Man City match will take place at 7:30 PM on January 17.
