Michael Carrick admitted Manchester United lacked the cutting edge as they settled for a draw at West Ham United, questioning his side\u2019s late-game approach. \u201cIt\u2019s a tough place to come, they made it difficult, and we just didn\u2019t quite have that sharpness or that spark, really, to find the answers too often.\u201d<\/p>\n
A number of United\u2019s senior players have highlighted a renewed spirit since Carrick\u2019s appointment, pointing to the manager\u2019s status as a club legend and his understanding of the fabled “United DNA”. That energy has been visible across Carrick\u2019s five games in charge, with the team developing a habit of scoring late to influence results.<\/p>\n
Recent examples include Matheus Cunha striking in the 87th minute to beat Arsenal and a 94th-minute swipe from \u0160e\u0161ko that snatched three points against Fulham. The Slovenia striker again intervened in the closing stages on Tuesday to rescue a point, demonstrating the late threat United now possess.<\/p>\n
Carrick was nonetheless critical of the team\u2019s lack of ambition as the clock wound down. \u201cThere\u2019s that spirit that galvanises you when you score late goals and you know you\u2019re capable of scoring late goals,\u201d Carrick explained. \u201cIt\u2019s good to have it in the bank if you need it. Hopefully, we can see games off a little bit sooner and take the points next time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s important we threw everything out at the end and had a lot of forwards on the pitch. [We] probably could [have] put a few more balls in the box, if we\u2019re honest, with the players that we’ve got. Josh [Zirkzee] had a chance that just went wide, and [a] great finish from Benji. So, delighted for him again, another big goal for him, and a good step.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u0160e\u0161ko reflected on his contribution after the match while remaining dissatisfied with the result. \u201cI am happy with my finish but not happy with the draw,\u201d Sesko told TNT Sports .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick said a lack of “sharpness and spark” cost United as they could not see off West Ham on Tues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969,438],"tags":[317],"class_list":["post-6802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","category-west-ham-united","tag-benjamin-sesko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6802","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=6802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}