Ahead of Manchester United's home match against FK Qarabag in the first leg of the Champions League group stage, Manchester United manager Eric Carrick discussed Luke Shaw's absence in an interview with TNT Sports.

I know you're very excited about this, and I know your team is too. How are you preparing for tonight against an unfamiliar opponent like Qarabag?

Carrick: Of course, we will give them the utmost respect. We will treat them like any other opponent. Because we've reached this stage of the Champions League, we have to expect to face all types of matches.

They've won many matches in the last 12 months. They clearly have a great story behind them, but most importantly, they've won a lot of matches, and we have to respect that.

In terms of how they play, they are very attacking, very offensive, and very aggressive. So we clearly expect a big challenge tonight. However, much depends on ourselves, and what we're really focused on is how to put in our best performance.

We've just seen your team sheet for tonight, and you've made 4 changes. Luke Shaw isn't fit enough to be included in the squad. Is this due to rotation management, or can you give us an update on his condition?

Carrick: To a certain extent. We simply don't want to take any risks. He suffered cramps when he was substituted a few days ago, so we don't want to take any risks. We've managed the situation and will see how he is after this match.

You also have 3 players in your squad tonight making their Champions League debuts. Can you talk about your 4 changes, including starting these players like Dogu, Yoro, and Sesko?

We wanted to make some changes to give the team some rotation and recovery, while trying to maintain balance.

Clearly, offensively, we feel we're very strong. We believe we have a very good team and a strong squad. We can make adjustments, but we don't want to make too many changes, because as we know, it's not easy for a team to play after too many changes.

You just said you want to focus on your own game. So what specifically do you expect to achieve in tonight's match?

Just to keep building on and improving the work we've done previously. I think we've made great progress in many aspects compared to last season. Although our results don't yet fully reflect this, I think there are many positives in our performances that give us great encouragement. A lot of our attacking play has been very good, some combination moves have been excellent, and we've been able to create chances and score goals.

Of course, defensively, we don't want to concede goals the way we have been. The reasons for conceding vary—some opponents have scored into the top corner, like in the match a few days ago. So we certainly hope to strengthen our defense. But I think we're on the right track at the moment.

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