Manchester United caretaker manager Michael
Carrick denied having received any inputs from Ralf Rangnick, who is slated to
be imminently appointed as the interim boss, on the team selection for Sunday’s 1-1 draw at
Chelsea, saying it was entirely his decision to bench Cristiano Ronaldo.

His comments come in reply to former United
defender-turned pundit Gary Neville’s claim that Rangnick had picked the line-up
for the trip to Stamford Bridge.

“That’s not the case, no,” Reuters quoted
Carrick as saying. “We came here with a plan.”

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“I kind of knew how Chelsea would play and
we wanted to stop the passes through to Jorginho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. There
were a few changes to freshen it up and it’s what we decided to go with. We
almost pulled it off.”

Carrick has taken over as caretaker after
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was fired as permanent manager last week.

Ronaldo started and scored in United’s 2-0
win over Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday and was brought on in
the 64th minute against Thomas Tuchel’s league leaders.

Jadon Sancho gave United the lead with his
first Premier League for the club, after opening his account in the midweek win
against Villarreal. Chelsea restored parity after Jorginho converted a penalty
awarded for a foul on Thiago Silva by Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

“Slightly disappointed to be honest. We went ahead, we came here to win.
To go 1-0 up and have it taken away from you is disappointing,” Carrick said.

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United are eighth in the Premier League
table with 18 points from 13 games, 12 behind Chelsea, who are just a point
clear of second-placed Manchester City.

United’s next assignment is a home game
against Arsenal on Thursday. There is still no confirmation if Rangnick will be
on the touchline for the game, with Carrick saying, “we’ll see what happens in
the next few days”.