Michael Carrick has warned Manchester United\u2019s recruitment team that there is work to be done as he prepares for his first full season in charge after being given the permanent job.<\/p>\n
Carrick made clear he expects new arrivals this summer and stressed the club must continue to push forward. \u201cI think the beauty of the next transfer window, for everybody, it\u2019s always the biggest thing in the world, and the most important transfer window of all time, for every club, I think,\u201d Carrick explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just the nature of how it\u2019s been created, to be honest, and I think, again, as a football club, you want to keep moving forward. We certainly do. As a football club, we want to keep moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s acknowledged we\u2019re at this stage, and the dynamics and the balance of the direction we\u2019re at, where we\u2019ve ended up getting to and finishing in the league, there\u2019s obviously work to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite obvious, with certain players leaving, there\u2019s a bit of work to do, but this one is not any more important than the last one, it\u2019s what\u2019s ahead of us as a football club to try and make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The squad faces a clear midfield priority. Casemiro will depart upon the expiration of his contract at the end of the season, while Carrick\u2019s continuation at Old Trafford likely spells the end for Manuel Ugarte. Those departures would leave Kobbie Mainoo as the only natural central midfielder in the first-team squad.<\/p>\n
Finding a partner for Mainoo is the stated priority and Carrick underlined the need to consider squad balance across a long season in multiple competitions. \u201cThere\u2019s a balance as a football club, because you\u2019re not necessarily, whenever it is, bringing a player in just to play with one player,\u201d Carrick explained. \u201cI think it\u2019s about fitting the squad, the balance of the squad, being able to cope with playing here in different competitions for so many games.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s not necessarily … I\u2019m talking quite broad here in general. With any player, you\u2019re not just bringing them just to play with one player, but certainly there\u2019s a dynamic and there\u2019s a balance that needs to be had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrick\u2019s message to the recruitment team is straightforward: rebuild around the present squad shape and deliver the midfield support needed for the season ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick warns United recruitment faces work after earning permanent role; midfield priority clear…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513,179],"tags":[1446,983],"class_list":["post-14044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd-transfer-news","category-manchester-united","tag-academy","tag-agents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}