Michael Carrick's Decision on Luke Shaw for Manchester City Clash
Michael Carrick will leave it as late as he dares before deciding whether Luke Shaw can face Manchester City this weekend, with the defender still being carefully managed after a recent setback.
The 31-year-old left-back missed Thursday’s commanding 4-0 Champions League win over Sabah FK, having been forced off in the 2-2 draw with Everton. United cruised without him in Europe, but Carrick is not prepared to roll the dice when City arrive.
“We’ll have to see,” Carrick told reporters when pressed on Shaw’s chances for Sunday. “We just kind of looked after him a little bit. He wasn't quite ready for [Sabah] 100%, so we didn't risk it. We'll see how he is over the next couple of days or so.”
The message was clear: Shaw is too important to gamble on, even for a derby that could shape the mood around Old Trafford.
A return to where it all began
For Carrick, the fixture carries a different kind of weight. City were the opponents for his very first game in charge back in January, when he stepped in as interim boss after Ruben Amorim’s departure.
On that night, United snapped a four-game winless run and cut through Pep Guardiola’s side with a ruthless edge, Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu delivering the goals in a statement victory that changed the tone of the season – and Carrick’s future.
This time, he is refusing to lean on nostalgia.
“It'll definitely be different, just because no games are ever the same,” he said. “I think there's no way we're assuming we won last year, we'll do the same things and everything will be the same.
“I think the confidence that we've built over a period of time and feel like we're getting better all the time, I think that helps us. We know it's a big game, we know it's an important game. There's a lot riding on it, it's pretty obvious to say, but we're looking forward to it.
“We've got a short space of time to recover and prepare for it, but we'll make the most of it.”
The tone was measured but firm. Respect for City, yes. Fear, no.
From stopgap to standard-bearer
Carrick’s stance carries more weight now than it did in January. Back then he was the caretaker, the steady hand. Now he is the project.
Twelve wins from his first 17 matches convinced the hierarchy at the Theatre of Dreams to hand him the job on a permanent basis, even as outside noise swirled about the INEOS-led regime targeting a marquee name in the summer.
Inside the club, Carrick insists his mindset never wavered.
“I think I said it pretty early on, I was always planning to be [manager beyond the summer],” he admitted. “All the decisions we were making were if we were going to be here for a period of time. I never knew how long that was going to be, I still don't!
“But you're always planning for the future, what we want it to look like and the direction we want to go, and that was from day one.
The performance the lads gave was incredible with all that, but there was definitely always – has been, always will be for me – from the start was planning to try and get this club to where we want to get it in the long term.”
The short-term, though, is brutal and unforgiving. City are coming. Shaw is a doubt. The schedule is tight.
Carrick has his project, his principles and his platform. Now comes another derby to test how far this version of United has really travelled since that first night against Guardiola’s side.
