Every word of Michael Carrick’s Fulham embargoed press conference | OneFootball

Michael Carrick says tomorrow’s game against Fulham is a “bigger test” than playing Man City and Arsenal

The interim manager of Manchester United was speaking to the media in the embargoed section of the pre-match press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League clash with Fulham at Old Trafford.

Tomorrow’s protest

The first question was: “There’s going to be a protest before the game on Sunday. What do you make of that? Just supporters taking the time to do this now, particularly where you’ve just overseen two really good wins?”

Carrick replied: “I don’t think it connects with the two wins, to be honest. I think it doesn’t affect the team. I think I fully respect the supporters. They’re incredible. They have been for so long and had a lot of highs and some downs as well. But I’m … we’re not offended by it or anything. The players certainly aren’t.”

“I think, within the stadium, the support we felt, that’s been there for all the games that I’ve watched for quite some time has been of the highest level. And I’m sure it continue to be like that. We know the connection that we’ve had over the last couple of weeks has been pretty special and we’ve both fed off that. I think the supporters fed off it. We have as a group, the players certainly have. And that’s something we need to keep building on moving forward because that’s exactly how we want it to be.”

His support for the Glazers

The next question was: “I know it was a few years ago, but in your book, you wrote that the Glazer family have been great owners and deserve huge credit… A lot of supporters would disagree with your claims on that. Do you still think the club can be a success with the Glazer family as the owners?”

The boss replied: “Yeah, I think we’ve had a good couple of weeks and we’re moving in the right direction. We want to keep building on that. So I think that’s part of the focus here is to never get satisfied with what we’ve just done and keep moving forward. The off the pitch stuff, whatever goes on around the club is not really for us as a playing group to worry about and let that affect performances. I think it’s what we feel, what we can grasp at the minute. We feel more support from the supporters as much as ever. And that’s where we want to keep moving towards.”

The following question was: “Michael, a couple of weeks ago when we were talking to you before the City game, you were talking about your coaching staff. You said they’ve been quite creative when it comes to the coaching sessions, etc. Can you expand a little bit more on that? And have you changed a lot in those sessions to get more out of these players?”

He answered: “Yeah, I mean, in some ways, it’s difficult to say. We’ve just done the work that we’ve believed in. It’s been two weeks and it’s been largely a fresh staff that in some ways are still getting to know each other as well. So I think a lot of credit goes to the staff for that and to be able to put things and then service the players. And ultimately, we’re there to service the players and try and help them and enhance them and give them the confidence.”

“It’s two games. We’re not sitting in there, all pats on the back, thinking everything’s great. We’ve done some good things. The players have done some fantastic things. Trying to work with them, individually, collectively, in trying to get on a personal side, on a social side, on a professional side. At the end of the day, we’re there to try and get the best out of them, and we’ll continue to try to do that.”

Motivating the players

Does he “see a bond developing between the coaches and the players”?

“I think so, yeah,” he replied. “I was chatting yesterday. I think it feels like it’s been a lot longer than the two weeks. In a real positive way, the fact that it feels really settled. I think it’s certainly not comfortable and taking it easy, but it feels really settled in terms of knowing the roles. I think the players have got to know us quite quickly and understand what we would like from them and expect from them. They’ve responded fantastically well. There’s really good relationships and understanding, which so soon is really positive, but certainly you need to keep pushing and building on that.”

Reporter Jamie Jackson then asked: “Hi, Michael. After two really good performances under you against, let’s say, bigger teams or title challengers, however you wanted to characterise them. Fulham has… This team over the years has done that actually against the better teams and then not necessarily lost against lower ranked teams, but the performances have been like, wow, where’s that coming from, considering how good it has been previously? Is that something in your thinking? Are you concerned about that? Do you recognise that as something that has been part of this team’s ups and downs?”

Carrick replied: “Yeah, I certainly understand what has gone before. Not to speak about that because it’s not for me to talk about that. What I think is we understand what it’s going to take and what it has taken to get results. With the respect, as I’ve said, with Marco and Fulham as a team, I think it’s as big, if not bigger test as what we’ve had. So it’s really not a case of looking at this as any different. It’s another game in front of us.”

“We’ve got to put so many things in place and carry the emotion and the intensity and everything that goes into whatever game we play and show the utmost respect to any team. So we’re playing at home, we’re playing against Fulham. It’s no different for me. It really can’t be any different. And assuming things or the type of game or anything like that, we’ve got to face the game in front of us, play the game however it develops. We might play well, we might be on top, we might have to defend, we might be up against it, we We might go up, we might go down. But that’s something that’s just going into the game with anything else, being prepared to do whatever it takes and understanding that it’s a real, real challenge. They’re on a great run. They’re not far behind us in the league. They’re there for a reason. It’s a big challenge for us.”

The final question was: “Bruno and Licha are two probably leaders, everyone would accept that, and you will have others. But are you confident that everyone that you send out there on Sunday is aware of basically the mental approach, I suppose, the attitude they’ve got to have?”

He replied: “Yeah, I am. It’s easy to talk about it, let’s be honest. It’s easy for all of us to talk about it and we know what needs to be done and how we need to approach it. That’s the beauty of the game. It’s unpredictable. Things can happen within the game. But certainly in terms of what I’ve seen, the reaction from the last game, coming back in the training and the focus, if anything, it’s gone up even more. And the intensity in the training is a very, very good level. So that’s all I can ask, is to keep building an improvement and taking it into the game.”

Every word of the first part of the press conference can be read here.

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