Michael Carrick has pushed back at the reaction to Manchester United\u2019s opening defeat of the 2026\/27 season, describing some of the judgment as \u201ceasy and lazy\u201d after the loss to Hull City.<\/p>\n
Carrick admitted he was angry immediately after the final whistle in East Yorkshire, though he kept that frustration away from the cameras. By the time he spoke again ahead of the visit of newly promoted Ipswich, his irritation was directed less at the result itself and more at the way the defeat had been framed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one game. Just because we lose a game doesn\u2019t just mean leadership [is responsible]. I got \u2018passion\u2019 thrown at me after the game\u2014it\u2019s not just that. You lose two set plays like we did, it changes the game,\u201d he said, also insisting there is \u201cenough leadership in our dressing room.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also rejected the idea that outcomes can be reduced to effort alone. Winning and losing, he said, is \u201cnot just because you try or you don\u2019t try\u201d in the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s all sorts of different reasons. I don\u2019t have to give you the total reason, because we know what we\u2019re trying to improve on. I think it\u2019s so easy and lazy … a team loses a game, everything\u2019s wrong: this is wrong, this is wrong, not trying enough, not enough passion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve probably played like that [against Hull] and won games, and everyone goes: \u2018What a great team, what a great coach, what a great load of players,\u2019 when we find a way to win 1\u20130.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to dig deeper than that and understand the details of it. And we don\u2019t get carried away when we win certain games because we know it\u2019s not been perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
The calendar offers little room for reflection. United are moving quickly from recovery work into preparation, with seven matches in four weeks across the Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup before the first international break.<\/p>\n
That run includes United\u2019s first Champions League fixture in three years on Sept. 10 against Sabah, a Carabao Cup third-round tie with Brighton & Hove Albion, and the season\u2019s first derby against Manchester City on Sept. 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick dismisses shallow criticism of United\u2019s defeat, urging a closer look at the details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[773,687,1710,1742,1056,179,2019,172],"tags":[1836,1066,1047],"class_list":["post-18838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-everton","category-hull-city","category-ipswich-town","category-man-city","category-manchester-united","category-manchester-united-news","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-carabao-cup","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18838","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=18838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}