Michael Carrick said Manchester United had "no excuses" for their defeat against AC Milan in their final pre-season friendly of the summer. United lost 4-2 against Milan, conceding sloppy goals in the second half to give Ruben Amorim a win in his first encounter against his former club since he was sacked.
Mixed pre-season results
The Reds end the summer having suffered two defeats against Wrexham and Milan in pre-season, but they secured wins against Rosenborg and Atletico Madrid, and drew against Paris Saint-Germain and Leeds. United stayed in Europe for pre-season for the first time since 2002 (excluding the Covid-impacted summers) due to the World Cup, and Carrick has been pleased with his team's preparations throughout the summer.
Carrick's assessment
"I think, as a whole, it's been good," he told MUTV. "I think there are a lot of positives to take from it. I think a lot of the performances, I think the group has grown and got stronger. So overall, I think today, you know, disappointed with today, we didn't play well today. So there are reasons for that. In some ways, we need to learn from, we need to improve. Some of the boys playing some of their first minutes. There are different reasons anyway. No excuses, we just didn't play very well today."
"But on the whole, we're ready for next week. I think a lot of the boys will be better for the minutes, and as I said, we've done a lot of work on the training pitch. I think the performances in the games have been pretty good, so we're still in good spirits going into next week."
Looking ahead to the season opener
When asked if he knew his team for the opening league game against Hull, Carrick said: "We've got a good squad, so there's decisions to be made. Of course there is, and we've got a good week's training this week as well to get some more work in. So we'll be ready for next week.
"I think there's a whole different feeling when it's the first league game of the season, and we'll be there. The boys will have a day off tomorrow, and then in for the rest of the week. Five days of training in different ways. Sometimes it's a little bit harder, sometimes it's a little bit more of recovery, but we'll work through the week and be better for it. I think we look forward to it again, having the whole squad back home back in Carrington, and look forward to the start."
