Michael Carrick has dismissed claims that Manchester United showed a lack of passion in their opening-day defeat at Hull City as "lazy", as he prepares his side for a crucial home fixture against Ipswich Town on Sunday.
The United head coach was responding to questions about the performance at the MKM Stadium, where the newly-promoted hosts celebrated their return to the Premier League with a victory. Carrick, who has rarely lost his cool since taking charge in January, was particularly riled by a question from former Premier League striker Jan Aage Fjortoft over whether his side had shown enough passion, branding it "ridiculous".
Carrick defends his squad's leadership
Quizzed on whether there was enough leadership on show on Humberside, Carrick said: "It's one game. I think there's enough leadership in our dressing room that we'll have it throughout the season."
He added: "Just because we lose a game doesn't just mean leadership, or I got passion thrown at me after the game, it's not just that. You lose two set-plays like we did, changes the game."
The 45-year-old refused to single out one reason for the defeat, but made clear he felt accusations of a lack of passion or deep inquests into the failings were "lazy".
No panic at Carrington
"Teams lose games, so there's different reasons. I don't have to give you the total reason, because we know what we're trying to improve on," said Carrick.
"But I'm just saying to you, I think it's so easy and lazy to just, team loses a game, everything's wrong. This is wrong, this is wrong, not trying enough, not enough passion. It's just like the obvious answer."
Carrick said he and his coaching staff had dug deep this week to understand what went wrong, but they are refusing to press the panic button at Carrington.
"We've probably played like that and won games, and everyone goes, 'What a great team, what a great coach, what a great load of players,' when we find a way to win 1-0. So, from my perspective, when you're analysing it, it's not the feeling and just that because of the feeling.
"We've got to dig deeper than that and understand the details of it. And we do, don't get carried away when we win certain games because we know it's not been perfect. And sometimes when you lose games, we know what we need to improve on."
United conceded twice from set-pieces at Hull, and while the club considered appointing a specialist set-piece coach at the start of the summer, Carrick claimed that wasn't on the agenda and that he was happy with the make-up of his coaching staff.
