Wayne Rooney gives Man United verdict after dominant derby display - 'That's the United DNA'

After Manchester United overcame Manchester City in the derby, Wayne Rooney offered his view on Michael Carrick's first game in charge.

Wayne Rooney believes he saw 'the Manchester United DNA' in the impressive 2-0 win over Manchester City.

Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu both got on the score-sheet to give United fans a memorable victory over Pep Guardiola's side. It was also the perfect start for head coach Michael Carrick, who was only announced at the start of the week.

United might have won the game by an even bigger margin were it not for an impressive display from City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. After watching the Reds secure what could be a pivotal three-points for revived Champions League hopes, the club's record goal-scorer lavished Carrick's side with praise.

Rooney told BBC Sport: "Obviously, absolutely delighted. I think the team, the spirit, the work-rate, the energy, everything about that team was fantastic today. I'm absolutely buzzing for the players and for the fans. The fans have been starved of that over the last few years.

"I know it's only one performance, but I think everyone could see how exciting that team could be. You know you hear everyone talking about it and especially us as ex-players, talking about the 'United DNA'.

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"That's just shown what it is. Work-rate off the ball, wingers getting back, filling in, helping out the full backs, and the goals, crosses into the box, desire to get on the end of it.

"The first goal, a counter-attack, sitting in and then breaking fast, that's the 'United DNA'. That's what we've been missing and, hopefully, this continues."

Ironically, in his post-match interview, Carrick did not want to talk about that so-called 'United DNA' - which had been chatted about on the latest Stick to Football podcast with Gary Neville - and instead focused on a strong performance. The ex-Reds midfielder said: "Yeah, I don't want to get carried away with all that DNA kind of thing.

"I think we wanted to play well today. We wanted to put things into the game that we felt would help us do that. Certainly want to be good defensively with the whole team.

"We felt that we had a threat when we had the ball on transition at times as well but, actually, when we did have the ball, I thought, we looked dangerous. So all round, I literally, you know, it's an easy thing to say, we couldn't ask for any more.

"The boys give absolutely everything in so many ways, [we had] three days to prepare little bits of information here and there, and they took everything on board tactically.

"Then emotionally, we were able to deal with that, exactly that we hoped for, really, and to feel that, like, we did towards the end, and the whole place, I said yesterday, it's a magic place, and certainly was today, and we all felt that."