Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick made two wider observations around his side’s shock opening day Premier League defeat at newly promoted Hull during his post-match news conference.
“We’ve done a lot of good things today, but I understand it will get lost, but it doesn’t get lost from our point of view,” he said.
A couple of questions later, he offered this: “Just because we lost the game today, we don’t have to dissect the whole picture.”
The general consensus from those who should know about these things was that United lacked intensity; even Carrick’s close friend Wayne Rooney said so on Match of the Day.
“For Manchester United to build on what they did last season they need to become a team other teams are scared of,” he said.
“There needs to be more energy in the press. They were too passive.”
It was not a view Carrick agreed with.
“Just because you get beat, it doesn’t mean you are passive,” he said.
“It’s one game. Results can happen in football. We all understand that. It’s not nice when they do, but it does happen.”
It is what you expect from Carrick, the epitome of calm, even if, by his own admission, the relaxed persona he presented in public in the aftermath of the 2-0 defeat was at odds with what he felt inside.
Carrick has been associated with United, as a player, coach, head coach and fan, for 20 years.
He was part of the side that lost in similarly meek fashion to Burnley in August 2009, when Turf Moor was hosting its first top-flight game in 33 years.
Three months earlier, seven of the starting line-up faced Barcelona in the Champions League final at Wembley.
United’s undoubted class and Sir Alex Ferguson’s legendary status as manager did not stop an external inquest then, so Carrick knows it will happen now.
As United defender Luke Shaw put it to Australian Premier League broadcaster Stan Sports: “No disrespect to them, but we should be coming to Hull and winning the game.”
