Carrick: I am very pleased with Rashford; his absence was both precautionary and part of workload management

At 23:30 Beijing time on September 13, Manchester United will host Manchester City in the Manchester derby in the third round of the Premier League. After Manchester United's home match against Qarabag in the opening round of the Champions League phase, head coach Carrick held the pre-match press conference for this game. After the media embargo period ended, the contents of the press conference were released. This is the first half of the press conference.

Hi Michael, regarding the striker position, Matheus (Cunha) and Ben (Sesko) clearly have very different understandings of the No. 9 role. When selecting them, how much does the opponent's style of play influence your considerations? Do you need to specifically work on this in training? In my view, their movement styles are very different. Is developing that understanding and chemistry also something you constantly need to work on in training?

Yes, that is certainly the case. They clearly have different strengths and characteristics. I think, as a team, the basic principles we are trying to achieve and the way we want to play should not change too much because of personnel changes, but different players absolutely give us different options, if that explanation makes sense.

We still want to play in a certain way and try certain tactics, but whether it is Ben, Matheus, Bryan (Mbeumo), Marcus (Rashford), or any other player appearing in that position, the threats they bring are different. So part of it depends on the opponent's characteristics, and part of it depends on our own balance, as well as the specific areas and spaces we want to attack. Sometimes it is reflected with the ball, sometimes without the ball, including the specific areas we need to defend. So there are many factors involved.

By the way, about Marcus, I know he did not play tonight, but the fans kept singing his name and it feels like he is in very good form. From your perspective, since he returned, has everything gone as smoothly as you expected?

I am very pleased with Marcus, yes, in many ways I am very pleased with him. I think that is very obvious from his performances. In Sunday's game, he once again showed a real threat. Although it was disappointing that he did not get more from it, he was a huge threat. I am not really sure what more I can say. We are just very happy to have him. He has done many things very well and has reintegrated into the team very quickly.

Regarding him not playing tonight, was that a precaution after he felt something?

That was part of the reason, yes. Part of it was precautionary, and part of it was trying to manage the players' match workloads in a reasonable way. We have excellent squad options, so we try to keep everyone fresh, but that freshness has limits. Tonight, we also wanted Ben (Sesko) to get enough playing time so he could regain his match rhythm and form as quickly as possible. Finding the balance in these areas is always a challenge. However, keeping Marcus energetic and ready for the weekend match is a positive thing.

Speaking about fitness and rotation, you obviously made some changes in the second half, but how difficult is it to take Bruno (Fernandes) off? He seems to be on the pitch every minute of every game. Will there always come a point in the future when you need to tell him, 'Come on, brother, take a rest'?

We only have five substitutions available, so we have to make clear decisions about our substitution strategy. But without doubt, he is the same as everyone else. He has played an enormous amount of football, but I think we are building and strengthening this team and squad so we can handle situations like this in different ways. Tonight was just one such situation where a decision had to be made, and he ultimately stayed on the pitch.

Regarding the team's injury and squad news for Sunday's match, will anyone be able to return? How is Luke (Shaw) currently doing?

We will have to wait and see, we need to look at it again. Before tonight's match, we protected and looked after him to a certain extent. He was not back to 100 percent yet, so we did not want to take the risk. Over the next few days, we will assess his recovery situation.

Hi Michael, your first game after taking charge of the team was against Manchester City. At that time, most people did not have very high expectations of you, while I guess most Manchester United fans now have much higher expectations. This is not only because Manchester City themselves are going through major changes. How do you view this match? Compared with the game when you took over in January, what might be different this time?

Yes, things will certainly be different since January. The simple reason is that no two matches are exactly the same. There can never be two identical games, so this match will definitely be different. I do not think we will have the mindset of 'we won last season, so if we do the same things everything will naturally work out.'

I understand the expectations people have for us. At that time, everything was new and everything was fresh. Nobody really knew exactly what would happen or where the team would go. The players, possibly myself, the coaching staff, and of course the media were all waiting to see how things would develop, and the change happened very quickly at that time.

Therefore, I think the confidence we have built over a period of time, and the feeling that we have continued to improve, have helped us greatly. We know this is a big match, we know it is a hugely important game with a lot at stake. That is very obvious, but we are really looking forward to it. Although we have a short time to recover and prepare, we will make full use of it.

Hi Michael, what challenges will this team led by Enzo Maresca bring? Although there have only been four or five matches this season, have you seen any significant differences between the current Manchester City and the team under Pep (Guardiola)?

They are a very good team and obviously they have achieved some excellent results. I think they were very professional and efficient in doing what they needed to do in their match against Porto a few days ago. Clearly, they have enough players to choose from and rotate, which is the advantage of their position. So yes, they are a strong team. There will be some small adjustments in the match. I do not need to go into detail here, but you try to learn from the game. We know we have to deliver an extremely strong performance and get many things right to achieve the desired result.