Ahead of United's visit to Bournemouth, the interim boss spoke about injury news, his skipper Bruno Fernandes and potentially winning player of the season award as well as what will be a tough game on the South Coast.
Michael Carrick says that all of De Ligt, Martinez and Dorgu will be unavailble for the trip to Bournemouth. While Mazraoui missed today's training, that was through illness but should be ready for Friday's match. Mount was back in the squad for the win over Villa but like that match, the bench is where he'll be as starting is not an option at the moment.
On the influential captain, Carrick says that Bruno Fernandes is "right up there" in terms of being in contention for Premier League player of the season. The interim finds that Bruno's form says a lot about what's going on at United and with the skipper's form. "I'd love to see him take the award."
United's interim manager believes that going to Bournemouth will be a tough game despite his players being in good form.
Carrick says he's unconcerned with the away form as it's all about focusing on the next game. Just because the home form is really strong, the interim says that their mindset won't change simply because United are away from home. "We’re not really separating one game from the next."
“He can always improve on a lot of things" says the ex-midfielder on current midfielder, Kobbie Mainoo.
Carrick believes there is a lot more to come from the youngster and that "it's natural" for a player his age to be having inconsistent performances.
The interim feels that Mainoo has done well to find his rhythm so quickly despite being left on the sidelines by former manager Ruben Amorim for most of the season. Carrick felt that the 20-year-old played well in the win over Villa believing that he did everything from controlling the game to his defending. "It was really impressive."
This match against Bournemouth is United's last for three weeks. An international break follows before club football returns with the FA Cup, which United were eliminated from in the first round.
Carrick says that because of this, there probably won't be many players at Carrington but as most of them will be playing for their countries, that means they will be able to maintain their fitness and rhythm.
The United boss believes that players need individual managing because it's a mix of some of them playing during this period while others aren't.
Final Thoughts
The injury update is the same as it has been for weeks.
And when it comes to Bruno, we know how influential he's been for us since he arrived six years ago.
This season, he's been next level - which is saying something for him considering all he's done - but what I like about him this campaign is that he's been a lot more controlled in his play. The chaos is still there, but it's a lot rarer. This has allowed him to maintain the high levels of creativity, get the assists he has whilst being very measured in his style.
We don't see those Hollywood balls too often these days.
In terms of him winning player of the season, here's what I had to say about that.
The away form is a bit iffy, ngl. 7th in the away table is not the best record but I agree with Carrick. Let's just take it one game at a time. The mindset and approach shouldn't change too much just because we're away from home.
I believe that if we continue to play as we are there is a strong chance that we pick up a positive result at Bournemouth and for the rest of the season.
Read my preview here.
I don't think Mainoo has been good for the last month. I think he was performing relatively well in the first couple of games under Carrick, but much like the rest of the team, his performances have dipped after the wins over City and Arsenal.
This doesn't mean I think he's been terrible btw, it's just not the level we expect of a player like him considering what we saw in his breakout season. Having gotten back into the team as part of a pivot, I believe we all thought he would be performing better than he has.
But Carrick is right. Mainoo is young. There will be many inconsistencies with one his age. I think the fact that when he broke into the team at a younger age and played so well, you would've thought that two years later, he'd be even better.
Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case and we know how impatient people are.
One of the main reasons I feel like his performances have dropped is because he was out of the team for so long and couldn't get in no matter what, which caused stagnation. Now, he's playing constantly even with average displays. There's no one to replace him so he's having to play through this poor spell, which probably isn't ideal for a youngster.
It is difficult with this weird schedule. Usually, it's packed full of games and sometimes it feels like there's no rest. This is the complete opposite.
There's too much rest.
This has worked against us in my opinion. I think playing every couple of days allows the team to maintain their fitness and rhythm whilst one game a week (or every other week), could cause them to become a little more lethargic and relaxed which has a negative effect on games, as we've seen with the last few.
The players also appear better off playing every couple of days. That's what they've been used to for so long so to go to the complete opposite all of a sudden which result in a bit of a drop off.
And,
IT'S JUST FUCKING BORING!
I hate this one game a week crap! We CANNOT let this happen again ❌.
Michael Carrick | Image: Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images - Manchester Evening News