Carrick looks for ‘lessons’ after first Man Utd loss
But results never tell the whole story.
As Carrick admits, the four games at West Ham and Manchester United were a “boring” one four games ago. It took an injury-time goal from Benjamin Sesko to salvage a point.
Everton’s Sesko completed the only significant pass of either side. On Sunday, Manchester United’s reaction to going back early to Crystal Palace was muted until Matheus Cunha won the penalty that also brought the game-turning red card.
Carrick’s team is getting results. However, his recent performances have not matched those at the start of his tenure, beating Manchester City, Arsenal and Fulham.
Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo were not a goal threat; As Kobbie Mainoo’s performance levels have dropped, so has penetration from the full-back areas.
It is a basic fact that they do not have an unlimited number of quality players. When the final whistle blew at St James’ Park, Matthijs de Ligt, Mason Mount, Lisandro Martinez, Noussair Mazraoui and Patrick Dorgu were missing due to injury. Casemiro and Luke Shaw were feeling the effects off the field of two tough matches in four days. Carrick does not have the squad depth to absorb these losses and still keep standards high.
Disgracefully, Manchester United lost against 10 men for the second time in just over three months. The damage was done by William Osula, who, aged 11, took to the field at Old Trafford to claim the Football Schools World Skills final victory trophy.
His goal came after defeating Tyrell Malacia, who was making only his second appearance in the season when Amorim started as a member of the ‘bomb squad’. The previous match was also against Newcastle.
But the damage isn’t too bad. Liverpool lost against the league’s bottom-placed club 24 hours ago, before Aston Villa suffered a heavy defeat to Chelsea on Wednesday.
Manchester United is in third place. They remain apart of Arsenal and Manchester City, who have no distractions in European or domestic competitions, as well as the teams that have lost all three places in the Champions League.
“We need to learn from this,” Carrick said.
“There’s no point in not learning a lesson and understanding how tonight happened.
“We can’t lose sight of the bigger picture though; we’ve put ourselves in a position that could be really exciting.
“We have to look positively at the next game and look forward to it because there is a lot to play for.”
Carrick is right about this.
He needs to make sure his team’s response to this defeat is equally solid.
