Michael Carrick walked out onto the stage at the Estadio Metropolitano on his own on Monday night. Leny Yoro and Manchester United’s press officer were a few steps behind, leaving Carrick to face the inquisition on his own for a few moments.
It was a peculiar scenario and one that didn’t faze Carrick as he sat down alone and for the following 24 minutes fronted up to United’s disastrous start to the season and a potentially defining week that sees his struggling team exposed to two of the most intimidating environments in football.
Should his players escape from the Metropolitano intact on Tuesday evening, Elland Road awaits on Sunday. Carrick desperately needs them to step up to the plate.
But if United’s worst record after six league games of the season in 40 years after a deflating draw with ten-man Tottenham on Saturday has left Carrick fearing the worst, he wasn’t showing it. On the contrary, he is relishing the challenge and urged everyone at the club to show him that they are too.
‘I love this part,’ said Carrick. ‘Sometimes when it’s not quite going for you, you see who’s really there. You see within the group, the players, the squad, the club, who wants to be here for the long-term and it really means something.
‘The supporters are there, they’re desperate for it. We’ve got to give them something. You’ve got to embrace the challenges to get to where you want to be. We’re right there now in the middle of it, but I totally believe that we’ll work through it.’
Michael Carrick has challenged his misfiring Manchester United players to step up to the plate as calls come for change at Old Trafford
Referencing Diego Simeone’s 15-year reign at Atletico, Carrick added: ‘I’m sitting here with a coach that’s been here a long, long time and I’m sure there’s times when it hasn’t quite gone to plan. But they’ve had huge successes, winning leagues and being around the late stages of the Champions League.
‘We’re talking about Sir Alex Ferguson and Diego Simeone who have built something incredibly special at both football clubs.
‘Football and building something takes a journey and you’ve got to overcome things. We’ve got teams in our league that have had success, but it hasn’t necessarily all been in one direction.
‘I understand when it’s not going too well, there’s a real clamour and a feeling of “it’s a disaster” and everything needs to be changed.
‘I get that, obviously. But that’s certainly not in our mind-set. To achieve anything, you’ve got to be able to deal with things that are difficult and overcome them. I did it throughout my career.
‘Of course we hoped for a lot more. We hoped and expected for a lot more. But we are where we are.’
Asked if he feels under pressure, Carrick replied: ‘It depends on how you define pressure. I certainly don’t look outside or elsewhere for what it should look like. I’ve felt the ups and I’ve felt the downs, so I don’t feel the pressure from that at all.
‘There’s no negativity around that. It’s embracing the challenge and being excited about what we can possibly do.’
The Red Devils are enduring their worst start to a season in 40 years after drawing with Spurs
It was stirring stuff from the usually laid-back Carrick, but it doesn’t get any easier for him.
United landed in Madrid without Kobbie Mainoo and Luke Shaw after both missed training at Carrington on Monday. It says much about the pressure on the club at the moment that United did not publish their travelling squad as usual as they deliberated over whether the two players would make the trip. They didn’t.
Shaw’s second injury already this season is particularly painful given that United neglected to sign cover at left back in the summer. The two players who replaced him for three games in September – Patrick Dorgu and Noussair Mazraoui – are also out of action at the moment so right back Diogo Dalot and young Harry Amass are Carrick’s options on Tuesday evening.
He is already having to squeeze square pegs into round holes in attack due to United’s failure to foresee Benjamin Sesko’s entirely predictable relapse from a shin injury. At least Matthijs De Ligt was part of the travelling squad having not played for almost a year.
Of more interest is how Carrick replaces Mainoo. It’s fair to say the England midfielder’s partnership with Youri Tielemans has not been a success. ‘This is not a midfield that can control games,’ said Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy after United’s 1-1 draw with Spurs, and it was hard to disagree.
It brought Carlos Baleba’s first minutes in a United shirt after the club’s £70million summer signing replaced a leggy Tielemans just before the hour mark on Saturday.
Baleba’s 30-minute appearance was one of the few positives to emerge from another depressing game, even though his introduction failed to prevent Spurs from snatching an injury-time equaliser.
The Cameroon international has been prevented from making his debut until mid-October due to an ankle injury sustained before his move from Brighton in the summer. Would Carrick want to start Baleba against Atletico in the heat of the Metropolitano three days later? Probably not.
There are calls for Calos Baleba to be introduced to the United team after he returned to action
But given his current predicament, how much longer can the United boss keep his biggest signing of the summer in reserve when the need to improve results is so urgent?
‘We know what Carlos can bring,’ said Carrick. ‘He gives us something a bit different in the balance of the midfield, so we’ve got to pick and choose the right things for certain games.’
Earlier, Simeone and his Atletico defender David Hancko sat in the same auditorium and refused to take United lightly despite their poor start, having lost to Carrick’s side in a pre-season friendly in Stockholm.
‘They are still Manchester United, a very strong side, and we need to play the game so we can punish them,’ said Simeone as Atletico look to bounce back from an opening defeat to Liverpool at Anfield and chase their dream of reaching the final on home soil in June.
He was fooling no one, of course. Carrick can only hope that his players stand up to be counted when it matters most.
