Carrick Dismisses ‘Favourable’ United Start as ‘Ridiculous’

Michael Carrick is already tired of the narrative. Easy start. Soft landing. Chance to bank early points.

He is having none of it.

Manchester United open their Premier League campaign away at Hull on Saturday, facing last season’s Championship play-off winners, before welcoming Ipswich to Old Trafford on 30 August. Two newly promoted sides, back-to-back. On paper, some see a gift.

Carrick sees a trap.

“A newly promoted team away from home is a tough game,” the United head coach insisted, pushing back hard at the idea that his side have been handed a gentle introduction. “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.”

United finished third last season, a surge that secured Carrick the job on a permanent basis and raised expectations that his team should “hit the ground running” against Hull and Ipswich, carrying that form straight into the new campaign.

That storyline has gathered pace. Carrick believes it’s badly misguided.

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

Promoted teams often play with a raw edge in their first home game at the higher level, fuelled by noise, adrenaline and the sense that they have something to prove. Carrick has lived those occasions as a player and now as a coach. He knows how quickly they can turn if the visitors arrive expecting a procession.

So while the fixtures might look kind on first glance, United’s manager is treating Hull away as a warning, not a warm-up. The question now is whether his players match that urgency when the whistle goes on Saturday.