Carrick Rejects Claims of Favourable Start for Manchester United

Michael Carrick is already tired of the narrative. Favourable start? Easy run? Not having it.

The Manchester United head coach branded it “ridiculous” to suggest his side have been handed a gentle opening to the Premier League season, despite beginning against back-to-back newly promoted teams.

United travel to Championship play-off winners Hull on Saturday, then host Ipswich at Old Trafford on 30 August. On paper, some see a soft landing. Carrick sees something very different.

“A newly promoted team away from home is a tough game,” he said, cutting through the optimism surrounding United’s fixtures.

He has lived these occasions before, as a player and now as a manager. The tight grounds. The noise. The surge of a club riding promotion momentum and desperate to make a statement against one of the league’s heavyweights.

“I've been involved in them in the past so I'm fully aware of what's coming at us on Saturday and what we've got to be ready for,” he warned.

United head into the campaign on the back of a third-place finish last season, a run that secured Carrick the job on a permanent basis and raised expectations that his side should “hit the ground running” this time around.

That outside assumption, that United can simply roll through Hull and Ipswich, clearly grates.

“It's not favourable. It's an easy thing to throw out there but it's pretty ridiculous. I'm not taking it that way at all,” Carrick insisted.

Promotion bounce or not, United are expected to win. Carrick’s message is simple: treat these games like a stroll, and they will bite.