Every word of Michael Carrick’s Fulham pre-match press conference

The first question was: "What have you learned about your group, the squad, across this last week with the results that you've had, and what do you want to see differently from them for the game at Fulham at the weekend?"

Carrick replied: "Yeah, we're always learning as a group, individually, as a collective. I think we're always learning. It was at some point in time when you're trying to build towards something, it's not always going to go perfect. It's not always going to go to plan. History tells you that any team that's been successful goes through periods when you've got to work through it. You've got to come through it. You've got to improve. "

"And we've had it. We've had a small period now over this recent time where it hasn't been exactly what we wanted it to be.

"I was expecting the point at some stage where we'd go through it. It was going to come. We had such a good spell last season and coming into this season, whether it was going to be now or at some point during the season, there's going to be a time when you don't get everything out of it what you wanted. And it's, it's how you work through it. It's how you react. Staying focused, keep doing the right things, staying level as best as you can and come through and keep believing that you'll come through, which we fully believe that.

"It's one of them spells and it's a week or two really of results that haven't gone our way and tiny margins in a couple of them games as well, you know, like 95th minute goal, goal that shouldn't have been and all of a sudden it feels - not for me, it doesn't feel it - but it can feel a lot bigger than it actually is. So we'll work through it, winning games is always the answer. It's the answer to a lot of things. It can cover up a lot of things as well sometimes by winning games and people don't see the whole picture. So it works both ways."

The BBC's Simon Stone asked:
"Michael, on Wednesday you said after the game that the pressure doesn't bother you. But what about your staff? What about your players, your friends, your family? You know what this club is, and you're right, it's a small period of time, but sometimes it only takes one defeat or one bad result and this kind of huge noise starts."

He replied:
"I think that's my role as well is taking care of myself and looking after myself. But there's a lot of other people  that I can help influence as well. It's the beauty of being here at this football club. It's, um, there's, there's, there's great times, there's things you can achieve, and there's great feelings, and there's obviously the disappointments and Sometimes the smaller disappointments lead to being a little bit bigger. It's, it's just part of coping and, and being at this great football club. And of course, as a group..."

"Does it feel like a great football club?" he was asked.

"Yeah, 100%, it does. Yeah, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, genuinely. It's the best place for me to be. So in part of the times when it's maybe not going to plan are sometimes the best times to work your way through, find out a few things and come out an awful lot stronger.

"So, it's, it's a period of time where it can be small things that become big things from a lot of other people. And the key to it for us is staying focused and staying on track and understanding that it can happen as much as we don't like it and we don't want to accept it can happen.

"And as I said, the fact it's happened the first cluster of the season really, if this happened in November after a good few wins, it, you know, it's maybe seen a little bit different. But I was expecting at some point we were going to have a spell where we'd have to work our way through, and we're kind of in that little bit now, and we'll find our way through it."

The next reporter spoke to Carrick about his experience of things "spiralling", and asked
"how do you kind of stop that feeling from— you talked after Wednesday night of a feeling around the team. How do you stop that feeling from developing?"

"No, it wasn't the feeling around the team," he responded.

"That wasn't the feeling around the team. It was the feeling around everywhere, everywhere else. So it wasn't about— be clear with that— it wasn't the feeling about us, or me or the staff or the players. It wasn't that. It's just, it's the general feeling that we just spoke about, that it can create, but it doesn't— that can't knock us or knock— put us off track or take our eye off it or refocus or think about things that we don't, that we don't control."

"It's about trusting what what we do, what we're good at, and keep doing them things to give us chances of winning games. I think you get it, like I just said, it's fine, fine margins, you know, and then everything escalates from then and we live in a world of instant reaction, instant judgement, which is fine, it's how it is, but it's, it's not in my world. And as I said, being realistic and then understanding this was going to come and being ready for it and knowing, learning about each other, I think it's really important and building on it for what's to come."

The next question was:
"Michael, you speak about sort of not feeling the pressure, but when you're walking off with the players on Wednesday night and the Stretford End's chanting what it's chanting, that must hurt on a personal level."

He replied:
"We don't like losing football matches, so it's not that I don't feel the emotion of losing football matches, but it doesn't affect how I think about what we need to do next. I think that's the most important thing."

"You don't feel you need to show more emotion?"

He replied "I need to show more emotion? In what way?"

The reporter answered "Some fans maybe want to see that. "

Carrick pressed "In what way?"

Reporter: "I don't know, just sometimes they want to see more emotion. But you don't—"

The boss interrupted "What do you want me to show them?"

The next question was about belief.
"In a practical sense, how do you kind of go about trying to maintain that belief? Like, you and your staff, do you kind of have meetings with the players, or do you kind of show them sort of videos of happier times?"

He replied:
"I think you've got to put things in a little bit. It's like, it's not, it's not a"It's not the end of the world. We're not in a place where we've gone on an awful long run of horrific results, you know. We've lost a couple of games recently and we feel like we've started and we've been in all the games that we've played, if not been the better team at the start of games. So it's not like we're having a real struggle all the time.

"We've done a lot of good things in them to put ourselves in really good positions in the games that we've been in. So the belief certainly comes from that, of the good things that we've done. That gets totally lost by, in some ways, in the surrounding feeling, but it doesn't get lost by us."

The next reporter asked:
"Just about team news for the weekend. Are you expecting Luke back, and is there a chance Carlos could make his debut?"

He replied:
"There's a kind of a chance on both of them, really. Not totally 100% yet, but there's another chance."

The follow up question was "What's the situation with Luke? Has it just been kind of longer than expected because it felt very short-term at first?"

He answered "Yeah, no, it is really short-term, and to be honest, but it's just working towards the game, so we'll see how he is come the weekend."

The next question was: "You said obviously we live in a world of instant reaction and judgement, which is absolutely right, but football owners inhabit that world as well now, and we see managers routinely moved on and Just the recent experience of this history, one obviously the new ownership took over the day-to-day running. Erik ten Hag lasted 20 months from that point. Ruben Amorim lasted 14 months. Not a long time at all. And results ultimately dictate things. So is the reality that you do face a short-term pressure for results amid your longer-term wishes?"

The manager replied:
"Yeah, but I think there'll be a lot longer than 1 or 2 games of results. I understand, first of all, taking away all that, that's irrelevant for me. I know the club, I know the role, I know what's expected here in terms of playing at a certain standard, playing at a certain level, achieving certain things on the pitch. So I get all that.

"In terms of future and ownership and how long I've got in the job, that's just totally not in my thinking, not one part of it. Like, how long have I got? That's just— it's ridiculous to think that way in a position that I'm in. That's just not on the radar.

"I understand what we need to achieve and where we need to be as a football club for the owners, what they expect, for the supporters as much as anything, if not more importantly for me, of what they expect. and what they want to see, which I get all that, I get all that. It's 2 or 3 games that we haven't had certain results and 2 or 3 games too many because I really hate losing, but that doesn't mean that the world caves in."

"In some way, some minds it does, but it can't for us, because we've got to perform, we've got wins and we've got a lot of games to plan for and that's exactly what we're doing."

The following question was:
"You've been really consistent in that whenever there's been a bad result ... you've never pointed the fingers at players, you've never made public excuses, anything like that. Because you're doing that, do you think that that maybe invites more criticism onto your own shoulders?"

The Wallsend man replied:
"That's why I'm here. It's my responsibility. I'm fine with that. It's not a blame game. It's not a blame game. We all search for things to look at and point at and somebody or for whatever reason it may be and find the blame.

"And sometimes it gets almost like too much of a thing of want to find someone to blame or something to blame. Blame me, no problem. I'll take the responsibility, whatever it is. But it's not about blaming people. It's about, for us, it's about finding the solutions and being better. And that's as a whole football club, as a group of players, as staff, as owners, supporters. It's a whole collective thing.

"You can point it in different directions, you can worry about different things, it's, it's about what you focus on really. I'm totally happy taking responsibility, absolutely no problem with that. It doesn't bother me, it's, I just know where we want to get to and, and we want to get there fast.

The last question was about JJ Gabriel. 
"You said on Wednesday that it's important to take a delicate approach with JJ Gabriel. I was just wondering, has there been any progress or update towards resolving his future and how confident are you that the club can get it resolved?"

He answered:
"I think I'll just repeat what I said the other day really. I think he's a young boy, JJ, and I think it's important that we certainly don't play anything out here. I think the exposure and the scrutiny and everything, that we've got to be careful and be sensible and think of him as much as anything. So this situation will work itself out whatever way it's going to work itself out. Making sure he's okay is the important thing."

That was the end of this section of the presser. The embargoed section will be released at 10.30pm on Saturday and will be covered in full here on The Peoples Person.