Michael Carrick insisted Manchester United must not take Fulham lightly, warning it would be “bang out of order” to do so while accepting his side may need to repeat the pragmatic gameplan that produced recent derby results.<\/p>\n
United arrive at the match as clear favourites but Carrick was keen to temper expectation. “So it might be a case [that] it\u2019s the same flow of the game as what we\u2019ve had the last two weeks,” the reliably unflappable head coach shrugged. “No shame in that. We\u2019ll deal with the game, what\u2019s in front of us, and do whatever it takes for us to be able to come out on top.”<\/p>\n
That approach was on show in the derby win over Manchester City, a victory that was only United’s second at Old Trafford since Halloween and one built on a surgical counter-attack through the middle. United recorded just 32% possession in that game, the fourth-smallest share of the ball recorded by the club in a home game over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n
Fulham have proved difficult opponents for the division\u2019s bigger teams. Under Silva they took four points from back-to-back fixtures against Liverpool and Chelsea in January and pushed Arsenal and, especially, Manchester City close in defeats earlier this year. Silva\u2019s tactical tweaks were decisive in the 1\u20131 draw in August, when he explained: “We knew how they defend and we know they like to squeeze from the back five,” he revealed post-game. “And if you don\u2019t give bodies for them to squeeze from the back five you can create superiority in the middle. We know they play with two in the middle, we tried to overload with our three plus Alex [Iwobi]. It was as simple as that.”<\/p>\n
Carrick has reverted to a 4-2-3-1, bolstering the centre with Kobbie Mainoo alongside Casemiro, who both sweep up behind Bruno Fernandes. Fernandes\u2019 return to the No. 10 role has been significant; he assisted goals against City and Arsenal. Silva\u2019s side will look to exploit the space between the lines, with Bryan Mbeumo and Fernandes known to swap positions.<\/p>\n
The squad\u2019s mood has shifted under Carrick. Lisandro Mart\u00ednez captured that change: “For me, when you touch my heart, I will give everything for you, and he touched it already and you can see that on the pitch we give everything,” and “You need people who understand your quality, and I think [Carrick] is doing that,” Mart\u00ednez added. “He\u2019s getting the best out of everybody, not just the players, but the staff. The standard, structure, and demands, are really important.”<\/p>\n
Carrick has been emphatic about the emotional side of the job. “You\u2019ve got to play with feeling. You got to play with emotion. You got to play with excitement,” he told assembled media on Friday. The manager will also be mindful of the early praise surrounding Ruben Amorim, who “hadn\u2019t even taken charge of his first Manchester United game by the time players were already queuing up to laud his “top training sessions.””<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick warned United not to underestimate Fulham, insisting pragmatism can follow derby wins. Today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[713,179,969],"tags":[342,1012,939],"class_list":["post-6351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fulham","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-burnley-style","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6351","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=6351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}