Michael Carrick's Derby Preparations: Luke Shaw's Fitness and Team Confidence
Michael Carrick will leave it as late as he dares with Luke Shaw before locking in his plans for the derby against Manchester City.
The 31-year-old left-back, a mainstay of Carrick’s reshaped side, sat out the 4-0 dismantling of Sabah FK in the Champions League after being forced off in the 2-2 draw with Everton. His absence on Thursday was precautionary, but with City looming, every detail matters.
“We'll have to see,” Carrick told reporters when pressed on Shaw’s chances for Sunday. United opted not to gamble in midweek, sensing the defender was short of the intensity required. If there was any doubt, there would be no risk. The derby is important; Shaw’s long-term availability is more important still.
Shaw’s situation is one subplot in a fixture that cuts a little deeper for Carrick. This game is a mirror of his first in the dugout back in January, when he stepped in after Ruben Amorim’s departure and immediately jolted United back to life. On that night, they ended a four-game winless run with a sharp, disciplined win over Pep Guardiola’s side, Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu striking the decisive blows.
That victory helped launch Carrick’s tenure. He is determined it does not define this one.
“It’ll definitely be different, just because no games are ever the same,” he said. There will be no leaning on nostalgia, no assumption that last season’s blueprint simply rolls over. The message inside the dressing room is clear: respect the memory, don’t relive it.
What has changed since that first meeting is the weight Carrick now carries at the club. Back then he was the caretaker, the steady hand asked to guide United through turbulence. Now he is the project.
Twelve wins from his first 17 matches forced the club’s hierarchy to rethink any grand plans for a marquee outsider. While the INEOS-led ownership explored options and speculation rumbled through the summer, Carrick kept working as if he would be the one steering United into the next phase.
He insists that mindset never wavered.
“I think I said it pretty early on, I was always planning to be [manager beyond the summer],” he admitted. Every call he made — selection, tactics, recruitment conversations, training loads — came with a longer horizon in mind. Not a short rescue job. A rebuild.
“I never knew how long that was going to be, I still don't,” he added, but the intent has been consistent: shape a team, not just a run of form. From his first day, the decisions were anchored to a vision of what United should look like months and years down the line.
The players have responded. The 4-0 win over Sabah FK was another marker of a side that now carries itself with more certainty and edge, even while navigating injuries and a tight schedule. Carrick sees that growing confidence as the real thread between last season’s win over City and this weekend’s clash, not the scoreline itself.
“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,” he said. United know the stakes. They know the quality they are up against. They also know they are no longer a team simply trying to stop the bleeding.
There is little time to breathe. A draining European night, a short turnaround, then Guardiola’s machine rolls into town. Recovery sessions, tactical fine-tuning, and the medical checks on Shaw will all be crammed into a narrow window.
Carrick, though, sounds exactly where he wants to be: in the thick of it, planning not just for Sunday, but for the club he believes he is still building. The derby will offer its own verdict on how far that project has come — and how far it still has to go.
