Who: Manchester United vs Manchester City
What: English Premier League
Where: Old Trafford, Manchester, United Kingdom
When: Saturday, January 17, at 12:30pm (12:30 GMT)
How to follow: We will have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 09:30 GMT, in advance of our text commentary stream.
Michael Carrick will step into the dugout as Manchester United’s interim manager for the first time in Saturday’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford, tasked with steadying a side that has stumbled through another bleak winter – and another change of manager.
son in their title defence, and they are once again challengers for the Premier League crown.
Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at one of the biggest games in world football, which sees the rivals in contrasting form.
How have Man Utd fared in the Premier League this season?
United are seventh in the table with one win in their last six league matches – add to that last week’s FA Cup exit, and the mood is flat on the red side of Manchester.
Carrick’s arrival, however, in the wake of Ruben Amorim’s sacking, brings a flicker of hope.
The former midfielder, who won the full set of major trophies as a United player, certainly does not give the impression of being overawed by the situation.
“I feel in a really good place to be here. It feels very natural, to be honest, very normal,’ he said this week. “I understand the job, what it entails and the responsibility of it.”
What experience does Carrick bring to the Man Utd job?
Carrick had an unbeaten three-game interim spell in charge of United in 2021, but his only long-term experience as a manager was at second-tier Middlesbrough from 2022-25.
He has a contract until the end of the season as United gives itself time to identify candidates to try to end a decade-plus of decline. Carrick has the chance to put himself in the frame in the 17 remaining games this term.
Carrick wants to put smiles on the faces of fans who jeered at the final whistle as United was knocked out of the FA Cup by Brighton last week.
“I want to be off my seat [with excitement],” he said. “I want to be enjoying watching the boys play and results obviously need to come with that. You can feel my kind of enthusiasm for it because I’m buzzing to get started and see what we can do.”
After City, United face a trip to Arsenal. Quite the start for a coach barely experienced at this level and taking on a role that increasingly looks like an impossible job after Amorim became the sixth coach or manager to make way since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.
