Michael Carrick has said it was “lazy and easy” to say everything was wrong with Manchester United after the opening-day defeat at Hull.
United lost 2-0 in a tame display and the manager was asked whether his captain, Bruno Fernandes, and Youri Tielemans, Belgium’s captain, had shown the leadership that might have affected the performance and result.
“It’s one game,” Carrick said. “I think there’s enough leadership in our dressing room that we’ll have it throughout the season. Just because we lose a game doesn’t just mean leadership [is the reason]. I got ‘passion’ thrown at me after the game; it’s not just that. You lose two set plays like we did [for the goals], it changes the game.”
Carrick was asked what the reason was for the performance. “You’ve watched football a long time, right? Teams lose games and win games, and it’s not just because you try or you don’t try. There’s all sorts of different reasons. I don’t have to give you the total reason, because we know what we’re trying to improve on.”
The 45-year-old was pressed to offer one factor why the defeat occurred. “I think it’s so easy and lazy to just … a team loses a game, everything’s wrong: this is wrong, this is wrong, not trying enough, not enough passion,” Carrick said. “It’s like the obvious answer. So, there’s a lot that goes into a game of football that can take [the result away] from [you].
“We’ve probably played like that and won games, and everyone goes: ‘What a great team, what a great coach, what a great load of players’ – when we find a way to win 1-0. So, from my perspective, when you’re analysing it, it’s not the feeling [that the inverse is true]. We’ve got to dig deeper than that and understand the details of it. And we don’t get carried away when we win certain games because we know it’s not been perfect.”
United host Ipswich on Sunday without Carlos Baleba, who signed on Tuesday for £70m from Brighton but has an ankle injury that may rule him out for three or more weeks. This means the midfielder may not make his debut until Tottenham’s visit on 10 October, after the international break.
United have admired the Cameroon international since last summer so Carrick was asked why the 22-year-old was signed so late in the window. He said: “It’s not always straightforward, and things have got to drop. So we’ve been patient. We wanted to get the right players in, that fit the group, that will take us forward, and Carlos is definitely one of them.”
