Michael Carrick has been facing the media ahead of Manchester United’s first home match of the season against Ipswich Town on Sunday. Here is every word of the press conference.
Injury news
The first question was whether there was an update on the fitness of Mason Mount and Amad.
“Yeah, Amad won’t be involved this week,” Carrick replied. “He’ll be out for a little bit longer. Mason’s back around the group, which is great. Trained this week, so that’s a real positive for us.”
On Carlos Baleba
Carrick was then asked, “How pleased are you with [Carlos Baleba’s] signing? And also, what qualities do you think he can bring to the midfield that maybe the others don’t have?”
The boss responded:
“We’re delighted to have Carlos. I think huge potential, massive potential. I think this is a really exciting signing for us. The quality that he has, the attributes that he has, that offsets a little bit of the balance of the group that we’ve got. Different strengths, different combinations. So for us to have that, absolutely delighted to have him. There’s so much more to come from him as well, which with the player that he already is, with that little bit more to come, is exciting for us.”
When will fans be able to see him in action?
“Yeah, he’s got a little ankle issue, so maybe a couple of weeks or so, maybe three weeks, we’ll see. But we knew that before, so it’s no major issue. It’ll be great to have him back when we can.”
The reporter asked, “Will him and Amad be able to feature before the international break? I know that’s still way off, but just because it’s such a long break, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s obviously new, the break to deal with, but we’ll wait and see, we’re hopeful, but don’t want to put any deadlines on it just yet.”
Plans for JJ Gabriel
The next question was:
“Michael, you were at Lyon on Monday. I’ve not spoken to you in general about academy players. You clearly took JJ Gabriel on tour, he played again. What is the plan for him? Because he’s obviously still 15, but talk about potential, there’s so much potential, he scored such a good goal.
The Wallsend man replied:
“Yeah, I thought the boys played ever so well actually. Really good team, really strong team that we had, and you could see that the quality of … I really enjoyed the game, really pleased with the boys that went the way about it, the quality, the attitude, everything about the game was really good, so really encouraged by that.”
“JJ’s one of the boys, he’s obviously got a really big talent. He’s trained with us quite a bit, he’s getting experience all the time, he’s physically adapting to each step that he makes and just continue his development really.”
Harry Amass plans
“And one of the other players who played was Harry Amass, who was with you in preseason,” the reporter said. “There’s been a bit of uncertainty, as with the general left-back situation, about what’s going to happen with him. Do you know what direction he will go in after Tuesday?”
The manager replied:
“It comes to this stage and there’s always a little bit where— and this is not just Harry, by the way, this is just the stage change of the window and putting squads together and dynamics of changes and younger players and loans and not loans and all sorts of different scenarios. So I think we always try to do the best for each individual player as well as keeping the group strong.”
“So I’ve been really pleased with Harry. I think he’s, he had a really good season that then didn’t finish so good with the injury, but it’s been great to have him around preseason. He’s done really well. So Let’s see what happens, but he played really well the other night.”
On the Ipswich game
What is he expecting from his side on Sunday?
“We want a good performance and a win, obviously,” he answered. “First home game of the season, it’s the one we look forward to and the supporters coming. Massively looking forward to the game. We had a setback last week and we want to get back to playing well and winning football matches. Another tough game again. They obviously had a big result last week as well, so it’ll be another challenge for us.”
“And looking at the squad now as well, obviously last week there were a few players who were on the bench, not in the starting line-up, who were late back from the World Cup,” the next reporter noted. “People like Lisandro Martinez, Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo. Are they in positions to start now? Do you think they are fit enough to be able to start if you select them?”
“We’ve got a squad to choose from,” Carrick replied. “We’ve got a good squad and we could pick a variety kind of combinations within the team. So we’ll pick a team for the weekend. But yeah, certainly the boys are massively in contention.”
The embargoed section of the presser will be released at 10.30pm on Saturday and will be available here very shortly afterwards.
Featured image Charles McQuillan via Getty Images
2 comments
Same mistake must not be repeated.
I want Man United to WIN every match
Carrick must utilise the talent which is already in the group as per merit.Every player on the pitch should give 100 per cent with the aim to WIN as their goal.