Manchester United Vs Manchester City [2–0] – Premier League 2025/2026: Michael Carrick’s First Big Statement – Tactical Analysis

Saturday’s Manchester Derby delivered far more than just another fixture in the Premier League calendar; it was a compelling emotional matchup in motion between Manchester United and Manchester City.

The two teams, respectively under the watchful eyes of newly appointed interim manager Michael Carrick and Pep Guardiola, approached this contest with tactics that reflected their broader philosophies: City sought to control tempo through positional rotation and high-possession sequences, while Manchester United aimed to disrupt that rhythm with aggressive pressing and vertical attacks.

From the opening whistle, the battle for midfield superiority defined the narrative, as City’s intricate build-up play confronted United’s compact structure and coordinated press.

Guardiola’s side tried to dominate with high blocks and rapid switches of play, probing for pockets to exploit in the half-spaces.

In contrast, Carrick‘s men frequently invited pressure before launching swift counterattacks that sought to punish the favoured visitors.

These contrasting tactical identities made for a fascinating match in the legendary Old Trafford, with Manchester United coming away with the big win in the derby.

In this tactical analysis, we’ll unpack how each manager’s game plan sought to impose itself on the opposition, highlighting key moments where stylistic principles were or were not executed, deciding the game in favour of Michael Carrick’s men.

Formations & Lineups

After the sacking of Ruben Amorim, Carrick is now the second interim manager for Manchester United, and, like Darren Fletcher, he has decided to use a 4-2-3-1 formation with his new squad.

Senne Lammens started in goal, Luke Shaw played on the left defensive side, Diogo Dalot played on the right defensive side, and Lisandro Martínez and Harry Maguire formed the centre-back pairing.

After not getting much playing time under his former manager, Kobbie Mainoo played in central midfield alongside Casemiro, with Bruno Fernandes as the attacking midfielder.

Patrick Dorgu started on the left wing, with Amad Diallo being his partner on the right side, flanking Bryan Mbeumo as the lone striker.

Pep Guardiola, on the other hand, decided to go with his usual 4-3-3 formation, which he used for the majority of his career, dating back to his days at FC Barcelona, but currently has to overcome a lot of injury problems in his defence.

Gianluigi Donnarumma was back in goal, but with Joško Gvardiol, Rúben Dias and John Stones all injured, Guardiola had to play a back-four consisting of Rico Lewis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Max Alleyne and Nathan Aké.

In midfield, Rodri played as the holding midfielder, with Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva playing as the two central midfielders, finally giving Pep his best possible midfield option back after Rodri heavily struggled with injuries throughout the season so far.

New winter signing Antoine Semenyo played on the right wing, Jérémy Doku on the left, and Norwegian superstar Erling Haaland headlined the lineup as the lone striker.

City Execution Struggles

After their huge problems over the last couple of seasons, as well as the dominance of City and Guardiola in the Premier League over the last decade, Manchester United were the clear underdogs in this game, despite playing at home.

Both teams took on their respective roles, and City dominated the game through possession, holding about two-thirds of it.

Interestingly enough, City had few opportunities in front of the goal; instead, Manchester United were the more dangerous team from start to finish.

Most of those problems were self-imposed for Guardiola’s team, especially their backline, which had huge problems with and without the ball.

With the ball, City tried to build up with short passes.

They heavily involved Donnarumma in the game, but only let him play simple passes to the centre-halves.

The full-backs were very wide, but also in a very flat position, and the three midfielders dropped back very close to the backline.

This created a numerical advantage for City in their own third, but the team struggled with passing quality, allowing United to get some pressure on them even without many players committed forward.

With Mbeumo very active in pressing Donnarumma and forcing him towards one side, City were forced to play towards their wings very often; passes into midfield were rarely open, and they only found solutions through the individual class of Rodri in these areas anyway.

Carrick identified the young Alleyne, who was just recalled from his loan spell in the EFL Championship this winter, as City’s liability.

They heavily focused on forcing the ball towards him and then putting pressure on the young centre-back, and it completely worked.

Most of the time, City was forced to play to Aké near the sideline.

Silva, the near-sided midfielder, then tried to make vertical runs to give Aké a progressive option to transition into the attacking phase, but Manchester United covered these passes, and with the poor quality of Alleyne’s passes, Aké often found himself in bad situations.

There were a lot of bad passes in those moments; often, the ball didn’t even reach Aké and was intercepted or went out of play, so United had a way of disrupting the flow of the game.

If the Dutch left-back got the ball, he often was forced to play long balls, but Guardiola was prepared for that.

With the midfield dropping deep and the three attackers pushed forward, threatening runs behind the backline, a gap opened up between the midfield and City’s attack.

Haaland often dropped into that space quickly, and Aké just chipped the ball towards him, so the striker could play quick lay-offs to the now forward-moving midfielders.

This allowed City to break the first line of press for Manchester United rather often.

The major problem was that, even when they advanced the ball that way, they ended up in the same bad situation again.

Looking at the picture, City now builds up in line two, but the same pattern of play still occurs.

Alleyne gets pressed and is forced to play to Aké, and now the winger, Doku, who dropped into the half-space, is forced to make a vertical run so Aké even has a chance to progress play.

But even in those moments, the quality of the passing was not good enough, and City never really found a way to get the ball to the runner in open space, and had to play into pressure again.

Carrick was clever in abusing the young centre-back, who was completely overwhelmed by the situation, and it allowed his men to prevent City from getting into any rhythm.

Manchester United With A Clear Plan In Transition

While preventing City from getting into a rhythm and disrupting their passing game was very important for Manchester United and Carrick, they also needed to find a way to score goals despite their focus on the play against the ball.

The former holding midfielder had a couple of very good ideas for that as well, and we will take a look at how United managed to get an advantage of 2.3 expected goals to Manchester City’s 0.45.

Manchester United rarely had sustained periods of controlled possession; when they recovered the ball, Guardiola had his men play a very aggressive counterpress, forcing United into quick decisions.

Still, the team had a very clear idea of how to get out of those situations.

When they managed to regain control of the ball, they did not try to get vertical immediately with their first or even second pass; instead, Carrick had his men play backwards passes after recoveries.

With the most recoveries coming on their right side, they then played the backwards pass to Maguire and switched play to the other side, where Shaw was now in a very flat position, as we can see above.

Dorgu now dropped back, and Mainoo overloaded the left side, with Shaw now playing the short pass down the line to the winger, acting as the trigger for City’s press and getting them to move forward.

Instead of trying to get out of the situation through the overload, United now looked to get back into the centre of the field.

Mainoo made very explosive vertical runs, dragging his marker with him, opening up the passing lane towards Casemiro, who slowly moved in Mainoo’s shadow and was now finally able to receive the ball after being covered by the player close to the ball.

With just two passes, Manchester United managed to play out of the pressure and get their midfielders involved despite being under pressure quickly after winning the ball.

From then on, the plan was rather simple.

The attackers made runs behind the backline, forcing them to drop back a couple of steps, and Bruno in midfield moved towards the ball, now finding himself in open space between the lines.

United then looked to find the Portuguese international with vertical passes quickly after getting back to the centre.

Just like he wanted to abuse the worst player on the opposing team, Carrick wanted to involve the best player on his team first and foremost.

Bruno then had the freedom to do whatever he wanted with the ball while the other players were tasked with making supporting runs, allowing him to thread through balls to them to create opportunities.

There was one more key principle visible in those situations, though.

The right winger, in this case Diallo, stayed incredibly wide the entire time as the „counter player“

City heavily commits to one side with their press, and it was the left side of Manchester United most of the time.

After getting the ball to Bruno, Diallo was always isolated on the wing, now ready to receive the ball off a switch.

Instead of overlapping runs, the full-backs always made underlapping runs, preventing City from covering the wide player and creating many 1-v-1 opportunities and crosses.

With this approach, United created a couple of opportunities, but failed to capitalise in the first half.

Width & Depth

Pep Guardiola has been one of the best managers in recent years for a reason, and he quickly adapted at half-time.

The Spanish manager subbed off a disappointing Phil Foden and Alleyne and brought Rayan Cherki and Nico O’Reilly on.

This moved Aké into the left centre-back spot and prevented Manchester United from having as much success in the second half as they did in the first.

He also stopped overcommitting in the counterpress, leading to fewer vertical attacks against United.

Still, Manchester United were the more dangerous team, showcasing that they are more than just a one-trick pony.

When getting pressed, they still tried to find Shaw quickly, even when they got their goalkeeper involved.

Here, Martínez even steps away from the ball so it can go to the left-back.

City had problems with getting the right assignment for Shaw the entire game, and here the Englishman can just dribble forward, breaking the first line of press with his first touch.

From then on, Carrick had his men use the same principle they used on their attacks in the first half, just earlier.
Guardiola cut off the pass towards the far-sided midfielder now at the cost of getting Shaw into space, but United had another pattern of play up their sleeve as an answer.

Now, Lewis had to press Shaw and was forced to move forward very early, creating a 3-v-3 in the last line for City, and Carrick once again positioned his wingers very wide.

Shaw now played a pass to either Bruno or Mbeumo, who dropped out of the centre and made an underlapping run targeted at the gap between the centre-backs of City.

With this movement, they either got Shaw into space or, more often, gave their winger space near the sideline.

Mbeumo and Bruno made vertical runs behind the backline now, giving the winger multiple options and forcing the backline to retreat a couple of metres.

This prevented City from pressing Dorgu and allowing the winger to find a pass behind the backline or a switch.

The far-sided winger was positioned very wide once again, just waiting for the long ball towards him, and with those runs on the near side, they opened up the passing windows towards Diallo here, who then creates another massive opportunity, but Donnarumma made two elite saves to keep the tie in this situation.

But in the end, it was just too much for City.

On a counterattack, Manchester United got Bruno involved with a vertical pass again, and the Portuguese playmaker found Mbeumo on a vertical run, giving the Red Devils the deserved lead of the game and then, later, after a switch, Matheus Cunha wins the 1-v-1 on the wing and finds Dorgu with his cross for the game-deciding 2-0.

For the last couple of minutes, United then defended in a 4-4-2 block, and with Dorgu and Cunha defending backwards, they prevented any breakthroughs on the wing.

With their physical centre-backs and Manuel Ugarte in midfield, Manchester United won the important duels in the decisive areas and, in the end, got the 2-0 lead over the finish line.

Conclusion

Manchester United have been chaotic this season, especially over the last couple of weeks, but they are not a bad team, unlike in recent years.

Carrick inherited a decent squad and came up with a very clever plan to hurt the favoured in-city rival with rather simple measures.

Therefore, Manchester is deservedly red for the next couple of months.

For City, this was the fourth game without a win in the Premier League in a row.

Guardiola and his team are in a dry spell right now, losing ground on Arsenal in first place.

While this is obviously disappointing for such a team, the injuries in defence definitely make it very hard for Guardiola at the moment, so I expect them to bounce back at some point.

Still, Manchester United were flat out the better team in this game and now have a decent shot at qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.