On this day, the Red Devils were the more decisive team, and Carrick quickly stamped his authority within the team, abolishing Amorim’s three-back approach and returning Koby Mainu to the starting line-up. They also left Benjamin Sesco and Matheus Cunha out of the XI, with the latter also having an impact off the bench.
Carrick was pleased with his team’s performance and told Sky Sports: “We don’t want to get too hung up on things like DNA. We wanted to play well and bring things into the game that we thought would help. We certainly wanted to play good defense as a team. We felt we had threats in transition.”
“When we had the ball, we knew we were in danger. We couldn’t have asked for more. The players took everything tactically and dealt with it emotionally. I said yesterday that this is a magical place and today was certainly the same.”
“I’m not going to say too much about Pep. He’s a very good coach and he has a very good team. It’s not for me to differentiate between them in public.”
He then cited his wide range of threats and offensive options at his disposal.
“We wanted to play to our strengths,” Carrick explained. “The two wide players, Amad and Dorg, were great on both fronts. Mbeumo, Bruno (Fernandes) and Cunha came on and made the difference, and (Mason) Mount almost got the goal. Everything was exactly as we wanted it to be.”
Carrick also revealed that the dressing room was “desperate” to put on a performance that would make the home crowd proud on Saturday.
“We are as close to the game as we could have hoped for,” Carrick added. “Change isn’t easy, and behind the scenes it’s about performing. The last few days have made me realize how desperate the players are to give the fans a feeling of success.”
“If anything, I was worried that their emotions would go too far because they are so eager to do well. But they controlled the emotional side of the game incredibly well. It made me proud to see my team have that kind of emotion.”
“Today was special. We tried to put things together quickly and leave our mark on the team. We came together and were emotional about what we wanted to do. I felt unbelievable from the staff and the players. We weren’t on top of our game. This is one result, but with that level of performance it has to be the usual feeling.”
