Michael Carrick hopes battling characters can bring good times back to Man Utd

Atletico Madrid are United’s next opponents in the Champions League

Manchester United manager Michael Carrick likes his players to show character in times of trouble. Pic: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.

Michael Carrick says he loves seeing who is up for the fight when the chips are down as the Manchester United boss embraces increasing pressure heading into the Champions League trip to Atletico Madrid.

The former Red Devils midfielder, captain and coach not only steadied the ship after Ruben Amorim’s reign came to an acrimonious end in January but changed course as the Red Devils cruised home in third.

Carrick was rewarded with an extended deal but questions are already growing over his role, with Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Tottenham making this United’s worst start to a league season since 1986.

Things do not get any easier with unenviable tests at Leeds and Como following Tuesday’s Champions League match away to in-form Atletico, but the head coach is relishing the challenge.

“Football and building something takes a journey and you’ve got to overcome things,” a refreshingly open Carrick said.

“I’m sat here with a coach (in Atletico’s Diego Simeone) that’s been here a long, long time and I’m sure there’s times when there’s been waves when it hasn’t quite gone to plan.

“They’ve had huge successes, winning leagues and being around right the late stages of the Champions League, but they’ll have had times when it hasn’t gone quite to plan.

“We’ve got teams in our league that have had success, but it hasn’t necessarily always been in one direction.

“I understand when it’s not going too well there’s a real kind of clamour and a real feeling of ‘it’s a disaster, it’s all wrong and everything needs to be changed’.

“I kind of get that, obviously, but that’s not in our mindset. That’s certainly not in my mindset.

“To achieve anything, really, you’ve got to be able to deal with things that are difficult and you’ve got to overcome things. That’s just part of it.” Carrick reflected on doing just that during his playing career, just like his players are now as the United boss acknowledged “we need to do something about it” immediately.

“I love this part of sometimes when it’s not quite going (for) you, you see who’s really there,” he continued.

“You see within the group, the players, the squad, the club who is really there and who wants to be here for the long term and is really attached to it and it really means something.

“The supporters are there. They want it, they’re desperate for it and we’ve got to give them something, so I think you’ve got to sometimes embrace the challenges to get to where you want to be.

“We’re right there now in the middle of it but totally believe that we’ll work through it.” United have failed to win in their four matches since opening the Champions League by beating Sabah 4-0 at Old Trafford, with this Carrick’s second away match as a manager in the competition.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 2-0 win at Villarreal in November 2021 after he stepped in as Ole Gunnar Solskajer’s replacement and his chances of a repeat in Spain are dented by absentees.

Benjamin Sesko, Patrick Dorgu and Noussair Mazraoui are out injured, as are Luke Shaw and Kobbie Mainoo after starting against Spurs.

“They’ve not travelled,” Carrick said of the latter duo’s absence from a squad that returning Matthijs de Ligt is part of.

“Both picked up issues in the game on Saturday, so we’re kind of working through that to see what that looks like.”