"My focus is driving the club forward" | Michael Carrick on Man Utd's future and current form

Sky Sports Premier League

Michael Carrick: My focus is driving the club forward, on Man Utd's future and current form

Michael Carrick gives an interview, responding to the Martinez comments fallout and discussing United's ambition, fan frustration, the Champions League performance against Atletico Madrid, young players such as Lenny, slow starts, patience for the manager, and the January transfer window. He stresses that the squad has moved on, is focused on driving the club back to the top, and sees possible January reinforcements.

► Subscribe to Sky Sports Premier League: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsPL ► Watch Sky Sports with NOW: https://bit.ly/NOWPremierLeagueYT Michael Carrick sits down with Sky Sports to discuss Manchester United's recent form, Lisandro Martinez's comments and looks ahead to their Premier League game against Leeds United. 00:00 - Lisandro Martinez 03:32 - Fan frustration 05:45 - Atletico Madrid 06:45 - Leny Yoro 07:40 - Leeds United 08:45 - Getting time at Man Utd 10:30 - January signings premierleague football manchesterunited ► Premier League highlights: https://bit.ly/PL2627HL ► MNF, FNF, SNF & Super Sunday analysis: https://bit.ly/SkyMatchAnalysis ► Gary Neville Podcast: https://bit.ly/GaryNevillePodcast ► Saturday Social: https://bit.ly/SkySaturdaySocial ► Buy this season’s shirts: https://bit.ly/SkySportsShop More from Sky Sports on YouTube: ► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub ► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub ► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket ► Sky Sports Darts: https://bit.ly/SubSkySportsDarts ► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub ► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1 ► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf ► Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub ► Sky Sports Retro: http://bit.ly/SkySportsRetroSub ► Sky Sports WSL: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsWSL ► Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkySportsFootball ► Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skysportsfootball ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skysportsfootball ► X: https://x.com/SkySportsPL ► Website: https://www.skysports.com ► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports content, you can find out more here: https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/31754/11434270/license-sky-sports-footage

Transcript

Michael, thank you very much for taking the time as always. Now, it has been an eventful few days. Can you just take me back to after the Atletico Madrid game? You see Landre Martinez's comments after the game. What do the next few days look like after that? And obviously, you've had talks with him, so have the club. You know, what has that situation been like to handle? Um yeah, it was it was it was something that we we we dealt with as a football club and and and Leech has um acknowledged that um that he's made the mistake and and then we've moved on pretty quickly. I think it's um it's important to to acknowledge what it was. Um there's a lot of emotion, a lot of passion, a lot of willingness to will to win in there and wanting more and wanting more from from all of us and um as a as a as a football club, as a team and results and everything that comes with it. So, um, we've actually we've moved on pretty quickly from that and the and the boys have, um, been in good spirits and, um, all pretty all pretty calm, believe it or not, behind the scenes, but, uh, hugely driven and, um, desperate to to get back to winning ways. >> Can I just ask about how you handle situations like this? you know, do you leave it to the changing room to for Leisandre to talk to, for example, or do you act as that bridge between them to diffuse a situation like that, especially with the boardroom involved, or how does that look in your eyes as the head coach of this club? >> We got a really strong group. Um, I talk to the players a lot. I rely on the players a lot. I think it's important that we got a good relationship. Um there's a bit of them pleasing each other of course. I think that's that's something I've been used to since since I first stepped at this football club. But of course as a as a football club we've got we got strong values. you know, we have um it's carried through through a long long time and um and it's up to us to to pass it on and evolve and um that's part of me trying to guide the players and help the players and not for know what what we expect of them, what should be expected of them and um I think that's pretty clear. >> Did that need to happen after the game that do you think Landro did they speak you know between you know Landro and the team? Did he maybe apologize? Do you feel like that maybe is warranted because some of those comments could have impacted the players or the team in other ways even if >> they definitely haven't impacted the team at all. Um I have to say so um it's it's pretty much it's done. You know it's um it probably seems a lot more from from the outside than than than it than it is for us and um Le's acknowledged it and we've moved on and the boys are in good spirits ready for the game on Sunday. Just on one thing you did say in the initial interview when he questions the ambition of the club and the direction of the club. Do you feel this club is ambitious enough? >> This is some fantastic football clubs. Um and we're striving we're striving to to get back to the top. You know, we've been there before uh repeatedly and we've had a bit of a spell when when when we haven't quite been there and for all of us, you know, we're striving to to get to the top and we're building. I mean, we acknowledging that we're building and and we're coming from behind. That's pretty obvious. It's factual and um so we're all pushing to to get there. No, no more so than me, you know. I'm I'm I'm desperate to to get to this club where we feel it it belongs, but we we've got to we got to earn that, you know, and that comes from a lot of different things and um we're all pushing in the same direction to to try and achieve that. >> His comments did resonate though with a lot of the fan base and I know you talk about, you know, being one of their own. Can you understand maybe why they, you know, really resonated with a lot of the words, whether that went back to maybe feeling like you didn't get the support in the summer or maybe some strong lack of depth from the squad at times or, you know, things to do with ownership. Do you understand some frustration that maybe has been pent up because of the start to the season? >> I think because of the start of the season, I think um I've got frustrations about um about not getting the right results. You know, the players have got frustrations about not getting the right results. Um my main focus is is helping the team and and driving this club forward and and and leading and and and again, you know, pushing the standards, pushing the expectations, pushing the achievements. And as a whole club, we're, you know, we're very together on that. And um emotion's quite good at times, fire and passion is good at times. You just got to use it and guide it in the right way. And um we'll we'll certainly do that. >> And just finally on Landra, how important is he now in this next round of games and also the remainder of the season? Yeah, for sure. I think all the players are important. We all all got a part to play and um you know, there's a real good focus, I have to say, around around the group in general and and around the club um over the last day or so. You can feel it. There's there's a bit of a freshness and there's a bit of an excitement of what we can do next. Um you know, it feels that there's there's been a lot of negativity in some ways and you can you can focus on that or you can focus on actually we're four points off fourth in the league. Um we've won one game in the Champions League, we've we've lost one. We're kind of it's there's a lot to play for in that. Um and you can focus on what's possible and uh we were a lot kind of further behind third place in January than we are now. Um or fourth place and then we are now. And and then we got to keep pushing to to get to towards the top of the league again. Um I'm excited. I'm excited. you know, you got to come through certain things and and times to to to feel what it's like to come out of it together as a group. We haven't had we haven't gone through that over the last season um together and and we've had a little bit of a spell now and when we come through, we'll be much better for it. >> I mean, I suppose the negative of the story almost took away from the positives from the game against Atéico because the team had a lot of chances and actually take a few everyone's talking about a really accomplished away performance in the Champions League. So do you feel like especially with the tweak in system, do you think that's something that you can really take forward in terms of forgetting the first 60 seconds of the game, there were a lot of positives that you can take forward? >> There was a lot of positives. Yeah, it does get lost and um I don't like trying to take too many positives all the time when you talk about the positives when when the results don't go so well. So there's an acknowledgement of that. But there's there's ways there's ways for games to go and um I think off the back of the week we kind of had to then go athletic goal down uh with some some good number of young players on the pitch as well. I think for them to cope, for them to then take control of the game and come away from it disappointed that we haven't got anything from it and the red card changed the game massively and um I think that for the boys to come away feeling that we maybe left left something there um give them a little bit of extra belief in some ways and um we got to take that moving forward. Talking about some of the players, Lenny Uro, I thought, you know, red card side was really impressive, especially playing at center back. I mean, you think he can really take that forward for the rest of the season, especially for his confidence as well? >> Yeah, Lenny Lenny does a lot of really really good things and we got we got high hopes of Lenny. I think um that's pretty obvious why he brought him to the football club before me, but I can I can see why. And um I could see why straight away. He's he's such a he's s such a great um young player to work with. He's desperate to learn. He wants to improve. um at some point he's going to make some mistakes or get things wrong. That's part of learning and developing as well. So he's getting the balance with him and helping him through that. He can play at right back, he can play center half and um you know he's he's got a really big future. Made it play for France last week and um he's in a really good place. The red card was never a red card. So um that was one of those decisions. But um yeah, we're looking forward to to see Lenny progress through the season. >> And leads on Sunday. Michael, I asked you before Atletico Madrid. How do you ensure you have a strong start? Because you even answered me in midweek talking about you knew how important that'd be away to Madrid and obviously the game starts as it starts, but saw something similar at Spurs last Saturday. So I know it's a similar question, so I apologize for the third week in a row, but how do you ensure you know away at Ellen Road? We know the atmosphere will be incredibly intense. What do you think hasn't been maybe clicking in those opening stages that you can fix on Sunday? Yeah, I I think um the last start of the last two games has has been different. I think um performance-wise on on against Athleta, it was it was that one moment that that got us really. I think the the Tottenham performance we hold our hands up, I don't think for a period of time. We didn't actually concede uh many chances in that in that game in the for this uh in the first half even though our performance wasn't where we wanted it to be. So it was we actually defended the box and didn't give many chances away at all. So it it was very different. Still, we want to start games better for sure and we're going to have to do that on Sunday. >> And it's been really interesting listening to you in the last week in Madrid. You asked a lot about Diego Simeone from the Spanish press and it was really interesting hearing you talk about head coaches who have had time, you know, you signed to Mikuel Artetta at Arsenal. Do you get the feeling, you know, at this club, the leadership hierarchy? I know you get asked almost every week about the 2028 goal to win the Premier League, but do you get the sense the people here are ready to be patient to not just give yourself but the players, the squad time to really build something and shape this team going forward? >> Um I I do. Yeah. But it's um it's not something I I I think about, you know, whether you get time or not, I'm here to to win football matches, but win football matches shortterm with an eye on developing the club and pushing the club to to be great. Um, again, in terms of results and winning things, it's a great club anyway, but it's um, on the pitch, we we need to be great and, um, you know, we we haven't quite hit that level of in recent times. And, and I understand that, but, I don't I don't think about myself um, in my own situation about how much time or what what's what it looks like for me. It's um, there's no individual that's more important than this football club. Um there's a lot of individuals have passed through it. You know, some players, some of the greatest players, um a couple of the greatest managers, especially one that I work for, but the club's always bigger than that. Um certainly bigger than me. And so my my focus is on what what the club needs, how we can get it to the top again for all the great supporters that we got and um get that feeling again. And just finally, Michael, I know you have a lot of injuries to contend with at the moment. And again, we talk about maybe a lack of depth maybe going into the team potentially in certain positions. Just wonder if injuries continue if you do pile up injuries, hopefully not, but do you think there is scope in January having these conversations around this time of year that if the club needed to strengthen to really help balance the squad in those areas, do you think there is scope to do that in January? I think January is the next transfer window. So, I think you always when the next transfer window comes, you want to plan and you want to make the best of it. And um whatever that looks like at this stage, we we don't quite know. And um but without doubt, there's there's opportunities because the transfer windows open. So, we'll definitely be we're looking at that and trying to come out stronger in whatever way that looks like. >> Michael, thank you very much for the time as always and I'll see you on Sunday. >> Nice one. Take care.