Carrick: Official apology won't change derby result, we could have done better that day

At 15:30 UTC time, Manchester United will face Fulham in the fifth round of the Premier League. Ahead of the match, Carrick sat down with Sky Sports for an exclusive interview. In the second part of this interview (due to its length, we've divided it into three sections), he reflected on the controversial disallowed goal in the Manchester Derby and the team's performance in that match.

Let's talk about the match against Manchester City. The outcome could have been completely different. There was a VAR controversy during the match, and Howard Webb publicly stated that VAR had a limited field of vision issue. What were your thoughts when you heard that?

After communicating post-match, we quickly realized it was an incorrect decision, and that outcome was difficult to accept. Mistakes do happen, but the existing procedures should have prevented this one. We can only accept reality; at least the official body admitted their mistake and publicly explained the situation, but an apology doesn't change the result and does nothing for us.

Is an apology enough? Will coaches in the future feel that an apology is insufficient and that other remedies are needed?

Honestly, I can't think of anything else that could be done; the match is over. Part of football is accepting the referee's on-field decisions. Some decisions go your way, some don't. There is no perfect football, there never has been, and probably never will be.

There will always be referee decisions that spark endless debate, and that's part of football's nature. But what happened last weekend, combined with the circumstances at the time and the fact that the corrective procedures that should have worked failed, is genuinely difficult to move past.

There was another situation in that match: Manchester City played with 10 men after receiving a red card. Many Manchester United fans questioned the team's performance, as Manchester United often struggles against a team with one fewer player. Have you reviewed this, and do you plan to make improvements?

This issue has been exposed. Of course, we could have performed much better, and there are many areas of the match that need improvement. But at the same time, we also produced a lot of positive play. I think we started the match very well; we were the dominant side in the opening stages.

After that, things changed. This is about experience and making adjustments during the match—it's a learning process. Next time, we'll know how to make subtle adjustments to cope. This is part of building the team; there will always be situations that aren't handled perfectly, and we must correct them next time. That's our responsibility.

You must analyze a lot of data. Does one statistic surprise you: that we earn more points in matches where we have less possession? Is this an unexpected statistical finding, or is this the style of play you want to build?

I don't think it's a bad thing. Do we have the ability to play in multiple ways? The facts have proven that we can. Since I took over last season, we have scored many goals with one style of play.

This season, we're still scoring quite a few goals in different ways, with diverse playing styles, which is positive. We have already demonstrated this in actual matches this season. We need to master as many playing styles and approaches as possible and continue to refine them going forward.

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