Manchester United manager Carrick held a press conference after his side's 0-1 home defeat to Manchester City in the fourth round of the Premier League Manchester Derby.

Good evening, Michael. Would you like to start by discussing the goal? I mean, how shocked were you when the referee initially allowed the goal to stand?

Honestly, I didn't see the entire sequence clearly at the time. But listen, the explanation I received was that the opposing player wasn't interfering with play. I really don't understand it, I genuinely cannot fathom it at all. I really don't get it—on one hand we're trying to assist the referee, we've put so many layers of security behind them, deployed so much staff, set up so many monitoring screens, no matter which VAR office they're in, all of it to try to make the right decision.

But if the rule is interpreted as "not interfering with play"—even if a player runs towards the ball just 6 yards from goal and nearly touches it, forcing the defender to react—and on top of that, the initial offside line drawn was also highly questionable. If the match referee genuinely sees the sport this way, then it's deeply concerning.

Did you have any further communication with the referee afterwards?

No, I thought it best to say nothing.

Michael, I know the goal was a key moment in the match, but how do you assess your team's overall performance? Especially after Phil Foden was sent off, it felt like you didn't take control of the game as expected?

I think we did take control, yes, I thought we had quite a bit of control, especially in the second half. Coming out for the second half, before they scored, I thought we played better, we improved from the end of the first half. After the break, we built momentum and hit the post, at that point the game was going exactly how we wanted it. But then the goal was obviously a huge blow for us. After that, we could have finished the match better, we could have been more creative, we certainly could have handled the end of the match better. But overall, I thought we played well early in the second half.

Michael, will you be seeking a more satisfactory explanation from the Professional Game Match Officials Limited?

I don't know how to pursue it, and I don't know who else to speak to. For that decision, I really don't know how to ask for an explanation anymore. Honestly, sometimes we see them come out to explain or apologize, and yes, that's good—I can't wait for that apology!

A player mentioned in their post-match interview that the referee visited the club before the season began to explain the rules to everyone, but perhaps the rules being enforced during the match on the pitch weren't aligned with what was explained to the players. What are your thoughts on this?

I think everyone—all of us—actually understand what the rule means because it's very clear, very straightforward, so I don't think there's any ambiguity about it. It's not about refining the details of the rule—sometimes rules have subtle changes that you might only hear about in meetings, and the general public can sometimes be confused. But for this specific decision, I think the facts couldn't be any clearer.

Do you think this affected the players afterward? Because they'll feel it was an unfair decision, and I imagine that when something like this happens during the match with half an hour left to play, it must be quite difficult to overcome mentally?

Yes, but that's part of the game, it's truly part of football. You have to react, you have to overcome it and adjust your mindset. So of course there's that element to it, and undoubtedly, it had a significant impact.

Following on from that, the players seemed to take a long time to regain their rhythm and creativity, and in the end only Bruno created that chance. Do you think that was due to the substitutions? Can you speak to that?

Honestly, in terms of creating chances and scoring goals, in all the matches we've won, we've scored at least two goals in each match, and we also scored in the matches we lost before this. So this is the first time we haven't scored, and I think there must be context to that. For whatever reason, you'll always have some matches where you don't score. So I can't be too harsh on the players, because we have many brilliant and creative players who have scored and created chances many times before. So if we just look at this match in isolation, yes, of course we'd like the team to perform better overall, we very much wanted to score today, but unfortunately we couldn't.

On that subject, did you consider bringing Ben Sesko on earlier to provide a focal point up front? I noticed that 10 of your 16 shots came from outside the box. I know sometimes the opposition forces you to shoot from distance, but that seemed like a lot of low-probability long-range efforts...

I think that's partly the nature of our attacking process. As I said earlier, I can't be too harsh on the players, I won't do that, because I think we've done a lot of very good work offensively, particularly in that area. It's just that today we couldn't find what we needed.

My final question isn't about the match itself. Before the game, there were protests from many fans, particularly regular season-ticket holders who frequently attend matches. They feel unfairly targeted, especially regarding measures to combat empty ticket resales. There's widespread concern about the relationship between the club and its supporters. Do you have anything to say to them? Do you understand their frustration?

Yes, listen, regarding all the specific details behind this, I don't always have the deepest insider knowledge. But I genuinely, truly appreciate and value the fans. If they feel this way about certain aspects, then of course we want to do everything we can to satisfy them. That includes performance on the pitch and communication off it, obviously. The fans are a vital part of this club, they're everything to the club. So after losing today, I feel genuinely sorry for them. I never take the fans' support for granted—I've mentioned this often, it means a great deal to me, so I really feel it for them today.

Is the upcoming international break a good time for that? Could it give you a chance to regroup after the defeat?

No, it's not. We still have two matches to play this week, and looking ahead quickly is part of the job. There's no denying that we haven't picked up the points we expected so far, that's an undeniable fact. But we don't need a break or a fresh start—we just need to move forward and start winning again.

Diterjemahkan oleh AI.

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