Carrick Dismisses ‘Favourable’ Start for Manchester United

Michael Carrick has no time for the idea that Manchester United have been handed a gentle glide into the new Premier League season.

United open away at Hull on Saturday, taking on last season’s Championship play-off winners, before welcoming Ipswich to Old Trafford on 30 August – another newly promoted side and, on paper at least, a sequence some have labelled a gift.

Carrick bristled at that suggestion.

“A newly promoted team away from home is a tough game,” the United head coach said, pointing to his own experience of those fixtures as a player. He knows the script: packed stadium, noise turned up, a team still riding the wave of promotion and desperate to make a statement.

“I've been involved in them in the past so I'm fully aware of what's coming at us on Saturday and what we've got to be ready for,” he added.

United head into the campaign on the back of a third-place finish that secured Carrick the job on a permanent basis and raised expectations that his side should “hit the ground running” against two of the division’s newcomers.

Carrick is having none of that narrative.

“It's not favourable. It's an easy thing to throw out there but it's pretty ridiculous. I'm not taking it that way at all,” he said.

For him, there are no soft landings in the Premier League. The first whistle at Hull will prove whether his players have listened.