Michael Carrick said Manchester United's 1-1 draw with Paris Saint Germain was less about a friendly scoreline than about how the players handled the work in front of them. He wanted a smaller, tighter plan than usual and said the night was designed to make the squad think for itself.
"I don't want to always give them the answers when we don't have to because it prepares them a bit for the new season as well," Carrick told manchestereveningnews.co.uk.
Carrick's lighter preparation
Carrick said the planning for PSG was "a lot smaller than what the boys are used to". He added that the aim was to let them "problem solve and find their own way a bit", and that he thought they did that.
That is a fair frame for a pre-season game that was not about polished automatisms. United were happy with "a lot of things that people don't always see", which fits the sense that Carrick was more interested in decision-making than in handing out a neat script.
There is also the form in the background. United came in on a four-game pre-season run, and the pitch work against PSG looked built to make that run useful rather than decorative.
The other takeaways from Gothenburg
The result did not arrive in isolation. Bryan Mbeumo scored again, taking him to 3 goals in 2 games, and that is the sort of return that makes a pre-season spell worth paying attention to.
The night also brought problems. Mason Mount went off after 20 minutes with an apparent foot injury, while Tom Heaton later left the pitch with a hamstring issue after 48 minutes. Youri Tielemans made his Manchester United debut as a second-half substitute.
Carrick may have wanted United to solve a few things on their own, but the performance gave him a mixed answer. The attacking signs were encouraging, Mbeumo kept scoring, and the injuries to Mount and Heaton will not be ignored when the next pre-season session comes around.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →
