A pair of regular Hermitian linear functionals (U , V) is said to be an (M, N)-coherent pair of order m on the unit circle if their corresponding sequences of monic orthogonal polynomials {φn(z)} n 0 and {ψn(z)} n 0 satisfy M i=0 a i,n φ (m) n+m−i (z) = N j=0 b j,n ψ n−j (z), n 0, where M, N, m 0, a i,n and b j,n , for 0 i M , 0 j N , n 0, are complex numbers such that a M,n = 0, n M , b N,n = 0, n N , and a i,n = b i,n = 0, i > n. When m = 1, (U , V) is called a (M, N)-coherent pair on the unit circle. We focus our attention on the Sobolev inner product p(z), q(z) λ = U , p(z)q(1/z) + λ V, p (m) (z)q (m) (1/z) , λ > 0, m ∈ Z + , assuming that U and V is an (M, N)-coherent pair of order m on the unit circle. We generalize and extend several recent results of the framework of Sobolev orthogonal polynomials and their connections with coherent pairs. Besides, we analyze the cases (M, N) = (1, 1) and (M, N) = (1, 0) in detail. In particular, we illustrate the situation when U is the Lebesgue linear functional and V is the Bernstein-Szegő linear functional. Finally, a matrix interpretation of (M, N)-coherence is given.