LONDON — Michael Carrick knows he needs his Manchester United side to find some consistency after their dramatic Champions League win over Roma in midweek pointed to a potential way out of their troubles.
United went into Tuesday night’s match on a nine-game winless run and the mood at Old Trafford was turning toxic at half-time with Carrick’s side 2-0 down.
But Bruno Fernandes’ twice-taken penalty was followed by two late goals from Matheus Cunha as United secured a much-needed victory to ease a little of the intense pressure on Carrick going into Sunday’s match against Aston Villa.
“Obviously it’s a positive reaction,” Carrick said of the mood in his squad since Tuesday. “Again, it’s not like all of a sudden, we’re getting carried away.
“I have seen enough from the players. I know what we’re capable of. I’ve said it enough. I know exactly what we’re capable of, and we all do. You’ve seen it from different perspective. You know what we’re capable as a team, as a team. We’ve proved it over time.
“We’ve just not proved it enough lately, but we know it’s there. The boys have trained really well. I’m not just saying that for the sake of saying it. If we weren’t, I’d say it,” Carrick added according to PA Media.
“The boys are training really well, and we’ve just got to get more of the moments that we’ve had, the halves of football and maybe a bit more the other night. We’ve got to keep building on that, but it’s definitely there.”
United go into this weekend, the last round of fixtures before the international break, outside the relegation zone on goal difference, and could potentially drop into the bottom three before kick-off against Villa on Sunday afternoon.
Consistency has been sorely lacking. Carrick’s side are yet to win successive matches, a far cry from the sort of form that saw them rise to third in the table in the second half last season when they won 12 of his 17 matches in charge.
Before he was sacked last season, Ruben Amorim said he would often travel to Old Trafford unsure of which version of his United side might turn up.
Carrick could be forgiven for feeling like he does not know which version of his side might come out from one half to the next.
Last week they were good in the first half at Chelsea but poor in the second as they went down 2-0, then fell 2-0 down at home to Roma before storming back after the break to win 3-2.
“Actually, when you watch the game back, I think the first half wasn’t so bad,” Carrick said after being asked about that trend.
“There were moments in there where we left ourselves short, really. They’re the moments that we’ve got to clean up on, because I think it’s been little moments here and there that have changed games for us, which is football, and that’s something we have to manage.
“Certainly, the first half of Chelsea was very, very good, and a good chunk of the game the other night was really good. So, I think that we’ve definitely shown signs of improvement, no doubt, in that respect, and we’ve got to take that moving forward.”
