Carrick rejects claims of favourable Manchester United fixtures
Developing story first seen 3 hours ago
Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick has hit back at suggestions his side have been handed an easy start to the Premier League season, branding the idea "ridiculous". The claim stems from United's opening fixtures against two newly promoted sides, which some believe should allow Carrick's team to extend the strong form that secured a third-place finish last season and led to his permanent appointment.
United begin the campaign away at Championship play-off winners Hull City on Saturday, before hosting fellow promoted club Ipswich Town in their first home game at Old Trafford on 30 August. Carrick, who won 12 of his 15 matches in interim charge last term, said he knows from experience that away trips to newly promoted teams are difficult, insisting there is nothing favourable about the fixtures and dismissing the assumption as an easy but inaccurate narrative.
- Carrick rejects claims Man Utd have an easy Premier League start
- United face Hull away, then Ipswich at home, in openers
- Carrick won 12 of 15 games as interim boss last season
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Manchester United enter this Premier League season under Michael Carrick, who took over as interim head coach last term and did well enough to be given the job permanently. His side finished third in the league, a marked improvement that has raised expectations for the new campaign.
The season opens with United facing two clubs newly promoted from the Championship, Hull City away and then Ipswich Town at home. Because promoted sides are often seen as weaker opposition, some have suggested this gives United an easy run-in to build early momentum, a view Carrick disputes based on his own experience of such fixtures being difficult.
The story matters as an early test of whether Carrick's promising interim form can carry over now he holds the job full-time, and it touches on a broader debate about how fixture difficulty is judged in football.
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Originally published by BBC Sport as “Carrick dismisses ‘ridiculous’ Man Utd easy start talk”.