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Manchester United boss Michael Carrick has issued a concerning fitness update on Marcus Rashford after he and his players were held to a 2-2 draw.
Bryan Mbeumo got United off to the perfect start with a superb curling effort but the advantage was chalked off by Tyrique George, who produced an equally impressive finish in the 83rd minute.
Michael Carrick delivers worrying Marcus Rashford
United looked to have secured the three points through Benjamin Sesko’s header two minutes from time, before debutant Ainsley Maitland-Niles found the top corner with a stunner.
Speaking at his post-match press conference, Carrick shared his verdict on the game and also revealed why Rashford, who was excellent, was taken off.
Thoughts on the game
Carrick said of the performance and the result, “Yeah, we’re disappointed, bitterly disappointed. To be up in the position we were in, [leading] the game twice and so close to the end. And all of the work that went into putting us in that position at different stages, to then come away like that leaves us… yeah, it’s not a great feeling.”
“Feels like a defeat, bit of a cliché, the obvious thing to say at this stage, but we have taken a point and we can’t ignore that, but it feels like we should have a lot more.”
Asked whether United’s leaky defence is a consequence of a poor team mentality or poor coaching, Carrick answered, “The mentality is there. I think there’s obviously things we need to get better at as a team. That’s two strikes from distance, really, two really good strikes from their point of view, so sometimes they fly in the top corner, and more often than not, they probably don’t, so there’s a little bit of that.”
“But yeah, obviously we can’t ignore it. We need to concede less goals to give us a better chance of winning games, but we’ll certainly look at that and keep improving.”
He added, “Listen, I think that one strike from the edge, that goes in top the corner and changes the whole feeling, that few minutes. There’s, obviously, when you look back, there’ll be loads of little things that you can do a little bit differently, of course, but he’s put it in the top corner from well outside the box, so sometimes it’s the one of those things.”
Rashford update
Rashford had been a persistent menace to the Everton defence all evening, making his withdrawal in favour of Patrick Dorgu a somewhat puzzling decision.
According to Carrick, Rashford may have picked up an issue.
Asked why the English forward was withdrawn, Carrick answered, “Yeah, he was feeling a bit of something.”
Carrick also said on Rashford, “Yeah, he’s done very well. As I said during the week, he’s done ever so well since he came back. I thought he looked really sharp again today and dangerous.”
“That final little moment didn’t quite drop for him, but nevertheless, I thought he created really good opportunities, and there was a big threat throughout the game.”
Carrick hailed the understanding between Rashford and Luke Shaw.
“I think you’re trying to build those partnerships and combinations throughout the team, really, and they’ve played together for quite some time now and have an understanding. And it’s obviously up to us to build the understandings and combinations all the time.”
“I thought we had that quite a lot through the middle of the pitch today at certain times, I thought we played some really good football through the middle of the pitch and obviously Bryan [Mbeumo] got his goal on the right, Marcus and Luke, were particularly dangerous down that side.”
On United’s poor start to the campaign and expectations to perform after a positive finish to last season, Carrick explained, “We haven’t started the season that bad, to be honest.”
“Yeah, yeah, but it’s not that bad, you know? We were a lot closer to coming away with three points today. That’s football; there are moments that we can deal with a bit better, but we’ll be fine.”
United return to action on Thursday when they host Sabah in their Champions League opener.
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