{"id":22506,"date":"2026-02-05T16:55:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/michael-carrick-praises-manchester-united-team-as-better-than-expected-after-recovery\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T16:55:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:55:35","slug":"michael-carrick-praises-manchester-united-team-as-better-than-expected-after-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/michael-carrick-praises-manchester-united-team-as-better-than-expected-after-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Carrick praises Manchester United team as &#8216;better than expected&#8217; after recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"body-thumbnail\">\n<div class=\"body-thumbnail-caption text-content-block-default-text-fill-03\" data-testid=\"body-thumbnail-caption\">\n<p class=\"typo-tk-rs-caption-xs\">&#8220;More than talent&#8221; &#8211; Slot planning for life beyond Van Dijk with Jaquet signing<\/p>\n<p class=\"typo-tk-rs-caption-xs\">Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"body\">\n<div class=\"wrap-anywhere typo-tk-rs-body-md text-content-block-default-text-fill-01\" data-testid=\"body-paragraph\">Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick said his players have been &#8220;better than I ever imagined&#8221; since taking over from Ruben Amorim and he supports them as they continue to help the club improve.<\/div>\n<p>Carrick was a featured player, winning three games in a row, with Manchester City, Arsenal and Fulham all losing to a rejuvenated United, who had won only one of their seven games before his arrival.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wrap-anywhere typo-tk-rs-body-md text-content-block-default-text-fill-01\" data-testid=\"body-paragraph\">Next up is Saturday&#8217;s lunchtime Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur, which will be broadcast live on TNT Sports and discovery+.<\/div>\n<p>Coach Carrick praised the efforts of his players ahead of the game, who helped turn the season around.<\/p>\n<p>Coach Carrick said, &#8220;The players were very focused.&#8221; \u201cWe are all aware of the larger situation and what will happen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a player, you just focus on what&#8217;s in front of you and try to achieve what you can at the moment and for the rest of the season. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The players have been better than we expected. We are focused on getting better, improving and getting ourselves and this club where we want to be. It&#8217;s a small step, but this is a big end to the season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the time, people were saying the first two games were outstanding, but we expected a tough start and in a way it helped the whole group to be more focused and energized. I wasn&#8217;t looking too far ahead. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs time went on, we got a vague idea of \u200b\u200bwhat we wanted to be, but since we&#8217;ve been here we&#8217;ve gotten a lot more clarity on what direction we want to go in and how we want to play.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Three wins were great in many ways. The team and the team have grown a lot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With United not playing in Europe and suffering an early exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Brighton &#038; Hove Albion, there has been talk of the club taking part in mid-season friendlies in Saudi Arabia, which could help make up for lost income due to fewer games this season.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the possibilities, Carrick said: &#8220;Nothing has been confirmed at this stage. We are aware of the schedule and there are some spaces that could be used in other ways.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everything is up for discussion at the moment, but nothing is set in stone. It may or may not happen. We&#8217;ll see.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col text-left focus:outline-none gap-tk-fx-between-elements-md\" data-testid=\"body-thumbnail\">\n<div class=\"group relative w-full\" aria-label=\"Play video\" aria-pressed=\"false\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\">\n<div data-testid=\"body-thumbnail-picture\" class=\"wrapper-16-9 rounded-tk-radius-rs-sm relative\">\n<figure class=\"card-hover-zoom absolute h-full w-full\">\n<div class=\"h-full w-full object-cover\" data-testid=\"blurry-image-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-transparent h-full w-full object-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/imgresizer.tntsports.io\/unsafe\/1200x0\/filters:format(jpeg)\/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io\/2026\/01\/25\/image-4d4bc7c3-1224-4ffe-abb1-a2d8d9ce1ff5-85-2560-1440.jpeg\" alt=\"photograph\" data-testid=\"image-high-res\"\/><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"body-thumbnail-caption text-content-block-default-text-fill-03\" data-testid=\"body-thumbnail-caption\">\n<p class=\"typo-tk-rs-caption-xs\">&#8216;The players were fantastic&#8217; &#8211; Carrick admits he&#8217;s proud of United&#8217;s stars after win at Arsenal<\/p>\n<p class=\"typo-tk-rs-caption-xs\">Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>For now, Carrick is focused on getting his team ready for the match against his other former club, Tottenham.<\/p>\n<p>Mason Mount missed the win against Fulham after picking up an injury in training last week but could be in contention to return.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wrap-anywhere typo-tk-rs-body-md text-content-block-default-text-fill-01\" data-testid=\"body-paragraph\">He is expected to return to the squad either against Spurs or against West Ham United on Tuesday, which will also be broadcast live on TNT Sports and Discovery Plus. However, Matthijs de Ligt remains sidelined with a back problem.<\/div>\n<p>Carrick spent two years at Tottenham as a player before moving to Old Trafford, where he spent most of his playing career, winning 12 major trophies in 12 years.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about his move from Spurs, Carrick said: &#8220;I have really fond memories of Tottenham. It felt like a short time, but I really enjoyed it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had a good team, Martin Jol was the manager and I learned a lot in a short time at this club. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a big leap to come here and I felt it right away. When you step into this place as a football player, you change completely. From day one, when I walked into the locker room and met the coach, that&#8217;s who I was.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"wrap-anywhere typo-tk-rs-body-md text-content-block-default-text-fill-01\" data-testid=\"body-paragraph\">Stream the Premier League, Men&#8217;s and Women&#8217;s FA Cups, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League and more on TNT Sports and Discovery+<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/premier-league\/2025-2026\/michael-carrick-manchester-united-tottenham_sto23266979\/story.shtml\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;More than talent&#8221; &#8211; Slot planning for life beyond Van Dijk with Jaquet signing Video credit: SNTV Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick said his players have been &#8220;better than I ever imagined&#8221; since taking over from Ruben Amorim and he supports them as they continue to help the club improve. Carrick was a featured<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-english-premier-league"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Michael Carrick praises Manchester United team as &#039;better than expected&#039; after recovery - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/05\/michael-carrick-praises-manchester-united-team-as-better-than-expected-after-recovery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michael Carrick praises Manchester United team as &#039;better than expected&#039; after recovery - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;More than talent&#8221; &#8211; Slot planning for life beyond Van Dijk with Jaquet signing Video credit: SNTV Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick said his players have been &#8220;better than I ever imagined&#8221; since taking over from Ruben Amorim and he supports them as they continue to help the club improve. 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