Michael Carrick bristled at the nature of the question and gave a rather pained smile. ‘We haven’t started the season that badly, to be honest,’ he countered, cutting in.
A win, a draw and a defeat. Four points from three games. It isn’t that bad, as Carrick says. But it could be better – particularly when you consider that Manchester United‘s opening fixtures have been against newly promoted Hull City and Ipswich Town, and an Everton side that stumbled out of the transfer window looking short in a number of areas.
Crucially, they failed to sign a striker after selling Beto to Fiorentina, but there was new right back Ainsley Maitland-Niles deep into injury-time crashing home an equaliser on his debut to deny United victory at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
One moment. One goal. But it made a huge difference to the complexion of this match and United’s start to the new season. Six points became four. Fourth place became 11th. Hence the question about United’s iffy start and Carrick’s prickly reaction.
Instead of celebrating another Benjamin Sesko winner here, United boarded the team bus back from Merseyside feeling as though they had lost this game, not drawn it 2-2.
‘That one strike goes in the top corner and changes the whole feeling of those few minutes,’ acknowledged the United boss, reflecting on Sesko’s late header and the even later reply from Maitland-Niles.
Michael Carrick has insisted Manchester United ‘haven’t started the season that badly’
That’s despite the club picking up four points from three favourable games – with Europe and the Manchester derby around the corner
After Carrick took over in January and guided United to a third-place finish, he knew this season was going to be all about maintaining that progress while juggling United’s Champions League commitments.
Having started the new campaign playing once a week, that reality will bite over the next few days as he faces Sabah in Europe on Thursday followed by Manchester City in the Old Trafford derby at the weekend.
As if there isn’t enough pressure on that fixture anyway, United have put themselves in a tight spot with a three-week international break just around the corner.
Perhaps the biggest concern for Carrick and his coaching staff in these difficult early stages of the season is United’s defending. The team have conceded twice against Everton, Ipswich and Hull. The only other time in the last 50 years that United have let in two or more goals in their opening three league fixtures was in 2020.
Carrick admitted it’s something that cannot be allowed to continue. ‘We can’t ignore it,’ he said. ‘We need to concede less goals to give us a better chance of winning games, but we’ll certainly look at that and keep improving.’
A lot has been made of United’s decision to focus in the transfer window on rebuilding their midfield by signing Carlos Baleba, Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans, a year after beefing up the attack with Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha.
The defence will get a makeover next summer, even though Carrick challenged that in the build-up to this game as he defended the club’s strategy.
‘I can understand why you come to that conclusion, but it’s not always as simple as that,’ he said. ‘I think there is the evolution of trying to improve things all the time, but we’ve obviously got a clear idea what we want to look like coming through this summer to then a little bit further down the line.’
United’s defence is a concern – they have conceded twice in all three of their matches so far
United’s problems at Everton didn’t stem from left back after all the talk about not signing cover for Luke Shaw in the transfer window. In fact, he was arguably Carrick’s best player and crowned an impressive defensive performance by making the overlap to get an assist on Sesko’s header.
Nor could you point a finger specifically at Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot or substitutes Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui.
You defend as a team and United simply aren’t doing it well enough. Let’s not forget, they conceded two goals in seven of Carrick’s 17 games in charge last season – albeit winning four of them 3-2.
They need to be better as a unit and Carrick is still working out his best midfield combinations after spending £155million on new players.
Baleba, unquestionably the best defensive option, is unlikely to be available until after the international break. Santos was signed for that purpose as well. But after starting the opening-day defeat at Hull, he has been brought off the bench against Ipswich and Everton with Carrick preferring a more progressive pivot of Mainoo and Tielemans.
Mason Mount, impressive as a central midfielder in pre-season, returned to the squad after injury at Everton, and defender Matthijs De Ligt could be available again soon.
The pressure is on Carrick to find the right balance, a challenge complicated by having to do it twice in the space of four days this week against Sabah and City.
Having made hard work of a favourable start to the Premier League season, it would be unthinkable for United to fluff their Champions League return against the underdogs from Azerbaijan.
As for the Manchester derby, United have saved some of their best performances for City in recent seasons. Indeed, Carrick kicked off his tenure with a 2-0 win at Old Trafford in January.
But he knows that Erling Haaland and Co will be licking their lips at the opportunity to take revenge if United continue leaking goals like this.
