Every word of Michael Carrick’s Fulham pre-match press conference – embargoed section

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Michael Carrick has been speaking to the media in the embargoed section of the pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s trip to Craven Cottage to face Fulham in the Premier League.

Every word of the first part of the presser can be read here.

Here is what was said in this withheld portion of the conference.

Defensive frailty

The first question was about the number of goals United have conceded this season.

Carrick answered: “Yeah, it’s certainly not the start we wanted. YWe need to improve, no doubt, as a team collectively, it’s not just a backline or certainly a goalkeeper, it’s a collective thing. So yeah, we definitely need to improve.”

The next question: “I know you said you don’t want to speak about individuals there, but Yoro and Heaven looked like they struggled a bit on Wednesday night. Is that just part of a young player’s journey to go through those peaks and troughs?”

The manager replied: “I thought they started really well actually in the game. I thought we started really well, so it’s not about them. I think they’ll learn from different experiences and they’ve done particularly well as well and they’re in a good spot, you know, 2 younger players that have got really good futures. So unfortunately you go through times in football and you have some good spells and sometimes you learn a lot from the things that didn’t go so well. But I wouldn’t isolate them at all, by all means, of anything from the other night.”

Do United lack a killer instinct?

“Your last two results, you lost to City after they went down to 10 men. On Thursday, you lost a 2-goal lead,” the next reporter said. “Is it fair to look at that andanalyse that your team lacks the ability to – within a game – sense what’s needed? So against City, look, they’re down to 10 men, let’s go for it a bit. Sabah, you know, we’ve got a 2-goal lead, let’s just keep the foot on the ball. Is that a fair enough analysis? Is that something you would look at?”

The boss responded: “I think it’s quite instant really in terms of the last week or so. It’s certain things have thrown up in, in games and it doesn’t all of a sudden mean there’s a big huge problem and that’s obviously the balance for me to judge. It’s very easy, just because it’s happened recently, to all of a sudden think that’s the thing that’s been coming for a long time, and that’s part of us understanding as a team moving forward actually what we do need to, what can happen in football in certain games, and what we need to put right for moving forward.”

The reporter continued, “Just related to that, do you think the team at the moment plays with enough, if I can put it this way, the sort of United way of freedom, excitement, front-foot joy?

Carrick said: “We’ve scored a fair few goals recently.”

The reporter retorted: “Well, you have, but you’ve also let slip a 2-goal lead. It’s almost like you froze in that game. That isn’t really the United way. You know, you obviously were part of amazing teams that just went for it.”

The Wallsend man answered: “Yeah, I was lucky enough to be part of good teams. Yeah, but it’s very different though, that, we’ve played some really good football, exciting football, scored a lot of goals. That’s very different to all of a sudden then conceding goals. It’s a different thing, you almost have to have two sides to you. I’m not downplaying, we need to stop conceding as many goals, that’s really obvious to see, but we have scored a lot as well, so there’s a balance to that.”

Leny Yoro’s future

Speaking about Leny Yoro, the next reporter asked “this is his third season at the club now, has this got to be the season where, I understand that he’s obviously still at a young age, but there has to be a cutoff point where he steps up and starts performing and acting like he should?”

Carrick replied: “No, he’s 20, Leny, and again, in context, he’s got a fantastic future ahead of him and a lot of potential, and he’s learning, he’s developing. To be at this club and play as a centre-back at such a young age, it’s a challenging position. It’s one that he can do for sure. It’s one that Ayden can do for sure. But there’s no cutoff point. Some players progress and find when they’re 18, they’re in the peak, almost not peak, but they’re at that level where they can really perform.

“Some players like Leny showed he can perform. I’ve got, I’ve got no worries for Leny. I think he does a lot of really good things and he’s part of learning. Sometimes it might be 20, sometimes you see players 22, 23, 24 where they start development. So there’s definitely no cutoff point. He’s just got to keep progressing and moving in the right direction, wanting to learn, keep improving, getting more opportunities. He’s doing a lot of good things and I think we’ve got to be careful again, and I certainly won’t do it, is making knee-jerk decisions on certain players just because of one game or one half or one moment in a game.

“And we’ve got a lot of belief in Leny for sure.”

“Is it helpful for him that he’s got Jonny and Jonathan to learn from, given that Jonny had Rio, Nemanja, Wes Brown, Gary Neville, Jonathan had Lucas Radebe?” the reporter asked- “Just, it felt like they could be eased into a team that had some very proven defenders, but it doesn’t feel like this defence has— there’s a lot of experience there, but maybe not the same stability.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of experience,” the boss replied. “Leny’s fortunate, he has got some really good coaches that have lived it and understand his position. Leny’s got a big future ahead of him and learning, and sometimes learning Live in the moment, sometimes it’s tough, other times he’s done particularly well. So he’ll keep developing, he’ll keep developing, we keep learning. He’s in a good place, he’s got a big future.”

Referees’ Association apology

“You mentioned earlier the goal that shouldn’t have been,” said the next reporter. “Pro Ref, whatever they call themselves these days, came out and said that they got it wrong. We mentioned last week after the game whether an apology would help, and you were quite dismissive about that at the time. Now that has been forthcoming, they’ve got it wrong, is it any consolation to you whatsoever? And as you move forward into your next game and the rest of the season, do you have faith in the system that it does work?”

The head coach responded: “One-off things can happen. At the time, it was a pretty big one. We know that. I don’t think I need to go over that. But yeah, I’ve got faith in it, of course. You know, it’s the system that we work towards and that’s what we’ve used. So the apology doesn’t mean an awful lot. I can appreciate and I respect it for putting their hands up and saying we got that wrong.

“It happens, it does happen. But moving forward, we just have to deal with it, what’s thrown in front of us. And maybe we get one or two decisions and on the back of how it balances out percentages or our law of averages or whatever that may be. But that was a pretty big one to take and had a huge impact on that game and that’s why it was particularly tough.”

“It is a big one,” the reporter agreed. “You’ve been talking over the past few days about how quickly things can catch fire here. That late goal at Everton takes it in a whole different direction. That call against City, suddenly you’re on the back foot. Things like that can have a massive impact on your season.”

“They can in the moment in time have a big impact. We can’t let it have an impact on the rest of the season. That’s for us to get back to winning ways as soon as possible.”