Carrick Rejects Favourable Start Narrative as United Face Hull

Michael Carrick is having none of it.

Suggestions that Manchester United have been handed a gentle opening to their Premier League campaign have been brushed aside by the head coach, who labelled the idea “ridiculous” as his side prepare for Saturday’s trip to Hull.

United begin away to the Championship play-off winners before welcoming Ipswich, another newly promoted side, to Old Trafford on 30 August. On paper, it has been painted as the perfect launchpad: two newcomers, a chance to extend last season’s momentum, and an opportunity for Carrick to underline why he was given the job permanently after guiding the club to third place.

Carrick doesn’t recognise that storyline.

“A newly promoted team away from home is a tough game,” he said, drawing on his own experience of these fixtures. “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.

“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.”

The message is clear. While the fixtures might look kind on the fixture list, Carrick expects a hostile atmosphere at Hull, a fired-up Ipswich at Old Trafford, and no shortcuts back to the standards that carried United into the top three.

If his players share that edge, talk of a “favourable start” will not last long.