It was a game of two halves — or three periods, as it were — as Manchester United probably deserved their 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, but the manner in which it occurred will drive Michael Carrick mad the rest of the weekend.
MAN UNITED 1-1 SPURS — Updates, highlights from Saturday’s game
Below is the latest Michael Carrick reaction, speaking after his side were beyond shocking for 60 minutes at Old Trafford, only for Bryan Mbeumo to save the day with a fantastic goal and Rodrigo Bentancur to seal the deal with a headbutt on Luke Shaw a few minutes later. It looked like three points in the bag for Man United, until Dominic Solanke headed home the equalizer in stoppage time.
The result make this Manchester United’s worst start to a league campaign for 40 years (12th place, six points).
MORE — Three things we learned| De Zerbi reaction
Michael Carrick reaction: What did Man United boss say after shambolic start, dramatic draw vs Spurs?
“We were mixed [in the performance]. A mixed game. We found it tough first half, it was a challenging first half for us and you could see it just wasn’t quite there, it wasn’t clicking the little bits of play, getting caught on the ball at times, a little bit late with the press, leaving spaces. There was a number of things, really. We progressed in the game first half and came out second half much better. Much, much better in so many different ways, to be honest. There were so many different things we needed to improve and, to be fair, as the game went on we did. … It’s a game we should kill off [at 1-0], and we didn’t. We probably turned the ball over a little too easily at times and that leaves the game open, and it’s obviously a bad goal which kind of sums up things. Very disappointed to be in a position like that and not come away with the game.”
On the second half improvement: “I just thought in general, really, there was a number of things first half that we wanted to improve and look at. Like I said, toward the end of the first half we were starting to look like ourselves and we weren’t like that earlier in the game. Certainly second half, I think just in general everything went up a level and we looked much better for it.”
On Solanke’s equalizer: “Disappointing to concede like that. No goals are good to concede. It’s another late goal that we’ve managed to concede in different ways. We’ve been up in games, to not take all the points and everything looks very different, everything feels a lot different. We’re making it a little more difficult for ourselves, but a goal’s a goal. You’ve got to accept it. We can defend the whole phase a lot better as a team and be a lot more stubborn and ruthless in seeing the game out.”
On Bentancur’s red card: “I was just trying to get our players away from it, really, because it can escalate quite quickly. From what I saw down on the touchline, it looked like a red card. I just wanted to get our players away from it, especially Luke, as quickly as we could. That was all.”
On Mbeumo’s goal and performance: “Bryan’s done great. It was a fantastic finish again, he’s obviously played different roles for us but we know what he offers. He’s got good quality and obviously the more goals he scores, the better. He’s doing really well for us.”
Carrick ‘very disappointed’ with draw v. Spurs
Michael Carrick reflects on Manchester United’s up-and-down performance in a 1-1 draw with 10-man Spurs at Old Trafford.