Man Utd flops face brutal Mauricio Pochettino ban with Michael Carrick rule changed

· Mirror

Mauricio Pochettino is set to change one of Michael Carrick's rules after becoming Manchester United head coach for their Premier League match against Liverpool

Mauricio Pochettino will reportedly not grant Manchester United players a day off following matches and instead have them report to Carrington for recovery sessions. Michael Carrick is understood to have seldom demanded the squad be at their training ground the day after fixtures.

However, the new head coach will apparently insist that they turn up for recovery work. Carrick and the United squad were notably not at Carrington on Monday following their 4-4 draw with Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Several international call-ups reduced the club's first-team squad this week. The Sun reports Pochettino is implementing the shift to boost their fitness levels. His eldest son, Sebastiano, is also arriving as a specialist coach dedicated to that department.

Charlie Owen is already a fitness coach at the club and has been for more than seven years since stepping up from the academy. His involvement has seen him work with Carrick, Erik ten Hag, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ruben Amorim.

The latter, like Pochettino, brought his own fitness coach to United, Paulo Berreira. However, he departed with Amorim in January, and they have since been reunited in Milan.

Toby Alderweireld, who spent five seasons working with Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur, has warned United's underperforming squad what to expect. He told the BBC: "First of all, he made us very fit. Pre-season was brutal.

> "The way he wants to play - on the front foot, putting people under pressure, a high line, very dynamic play - you need to run. You need to be capable of running and be capable of high-intensity runs - the basic is to be fit.

> "Every manager wants a good pre-season and time to give the players their ideas and the fitness, but the players are going to feel straight away that it's a different level. This is every day at the training ground; it's 100% - that's what he asks, what he demands. It will be a big difference for the players, and they're going to see results there straight away."

The Belgian defender also recalled: "In the Champions League semi-final, we were 3-0 down [against Ajax] and he didn't have a tactical half-time talk. He just said, 'You're going to be physical, you're going to fight, you only need one goal to be back in the game, believe that everything is possible.'

> "That was a big moment because we were nowhere near Ajax at that time, especially in that game. But we changed everything by intensity, by duels.

> "I remember the long ball to [Fernando] Llorente and just fighting and asking, 'How badly do you want it?' It changed from that moment."

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