Carrick confident Man Utd can ‘work through’ tough time

Former Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick has expressed his belief that his team can persevere through a difficult period following a disappointing start to the current season. Carrick, who took over on a permanent basis at the end of last season, guided United to third place in the Premier League and a return to the Champions League in his temporary role.

However, since the turn of the year, United have only managed four points from their first four league games and were knocked out of the League Cup by Brighton in a dramatic 3-2 defeat at Old Trafford, where they had conceded a two-goal lead for the first time in 50 years.

Carrick addressed these challenges during a recent interview ahead of Sunday's match against Fulham, stating that every successful team experiences periods where they must work through the difficulties and continue to improve. He emphasized that United had a great run last season, which set high expectations for the new campaign.

Carrick further noted that his team had experienced a recent period of underperformance and that they expected a point to help them navigate through this setback. He reiterated that history teaches us any successful team goes through such phases, and they were expecting to overcome them.

Carrick also highlighted recent incidents that contributed to the team's poor run of form, including a wrong VAR decision in favor of Manchester City and a remarkable late goal by Ainsley Maitland-Niles for Everton, which United narrowly missed out on. Despite these setbacks, Carrick remained optimistic, emphasizing that winning games is the key to overcoming adversity and that sometimes small disappointments can lead to bigger discoveries.

He concluded that United would benefit from the return of Luke Shaw from injury and that Carlos Bacca could also make a return from his £70 million move from Brighton, potentially strengthening the team for their upcoming fixture at Craven Cottage.