Carrick on Luke Shaw's Absence: He Had Some Cramp in the Last Game, We Did Not Want to Take Risks

In the first round of the Champions League league phase, Manchester United were set to host Sabah Baku. Before the match, United manager Carrick spoke to TNT Sports about Luke Shaw's absence from the squad.

I know you are very excited about this, and I know your team is as well. Facing an opponent like Sabah, who you were previously unfamiliar with, how should you prepare for tonight?

Carrick: Obviously, we will give them the greatest respect. We will view them the same way we view any other opponent. Now that we have reached this stage of the Champions League, we should expect to face all kinds of matches.

Over the past 12 months or so, they have won many matches. They clearly have a great story behind them, but most importantly, they have genuinely won a lot of games, and we have to respect that.

In terms of their style of play, they are very attractive, very attacking and very positive. So we obviously expect tonight to be a huge challenge. However, to a large extent, it depends on ourselves. Our real focus is on delivering our best performance.

We have just seen your team lineup for tonight, and you have made four changes. Luke Shaw is not physically ready to be included in the squad. Is this due to rotation management, or can you explain his latest situation?

Carrick: That is part of the reason. We simply did not want to take risks. He had some cramp when he was substituted in the previous game, so we did not want to take any chances. We have been managing his situation and will see how he feels after this match.

There are also three players in your lineup tonight who will make their Champions League debuts. Can you talk about the four changes you have made, including the starting selections of players such as Dorgu, Yoro and Sesko?

We wanted to make some changes to allow the team to adjust and recover, while trying to maintain balance as much as possible.

Obviously, in attack, we feel we are very strong. We believe we have a very good team and a strong squad. We can make adjustments, but we do not want to change too much because, as we know, it is not easy for a team to perform after making too many changes.

You just said you want to focus on your own performance. So what exactly do you hope to achieve in tonight's match?

It is about continuing to build and improving further on the work we have already done. I think we have made great progress in many areas compared with last season. Although our results have not fully reflected that yet, I think there are many positive aspects in our performances, which gives us great encouragement. Many of our attacking combinations have worked very well, some of our combination plays have been excellent, and we have been able to create chances and score goals.

Of course, defensively, we do not want to concede goals like we have done before. There have been different reasons for the goals we conceded, with some being shots into the corners, such as in the previous match. So we certainly want to strengthen our defence further. But I think we are currently on a good path.