The upcoming fixture carries significant personal weight for Carrick, serving as a repeat of his very first match in the dugout after replacing Ruben Amorim on an interim basis in January. On that occasion, United snapped a four-game winless streak with a clinical performance to down Pep Guardiola’s side, thanks to goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu.
Carrick was quick to dismiss any suggestions that the previous result would dictate the flow of Sunday’s encounter. ‘It’ll definitely be different, just because no games are ever the same,’ he explained. ‘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.’