Carrick looks for ‘lessons’ after first Man Utd loss

At moments like this, all you can do is say the right things.

Say the defeat was disappointing, that the performance was not what was hoped for and that lessons will be learned. Say the team will respond in a positive way.

It is not in Michael Carrick’s nature to throw players under the bus.

Unlike his predecessor, he will never say “this is maybe the worst team in the history of Manchester United”, Ruben Amorim offering that opinion just over a year ago after a home defeat by Brighton.

But Carrick is no-one’s fool either. He knows the 11 days between the chastening 2-1 defeat by 10-man Newcastle at St James’ Park and the visit of Aston Villa to Old Trafford on 15 March could be the most important of his season.

If he gets it right and Manchester United follow Chelsea’s lead by beating Villa, Carrick will have done two things. Firstly, he will have put his club in pole position to qualify for the Champions League, which few thought was realistic when he stepped into Amorim’s shoes.

In addition, from a personal perspective, he will also have shown he really can learn from defeats and respond.

As his old boss Sir Alex Ferguson used to say, “every team loses, it is part of the game; it is what you do about it that counts”.

“We are bitterly disappointed,” said Carrick. “It hurts.

“We came here in good shape. The way it panned out is very disappointing. There is no two ways about that.”

But results never tell the whole story.

Four games ago at West Ham, Manchester United were “stodgy'” by Carrick’s own admission. It took an injury-time Benjamin Sesko goal to salvage a point.

At Everton, Sesko finished off the only notable passage of play from either side. On Sunday, Manchester United’s response to going behind early to Crystal Palace was muted until Matheus Cunha won the penalty that also brought the red card that turned the game on its head.

Carrick’s team have been getting results. However, their most-recent performances have not matched those that beat Manchester City, Arsenal and Fulham at the start of his time at the helm.

Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo have not been a goal threat; Kobbie Mainoo’s performance levels have dipped, while penetration from full-back areas has reduced.

It is a basic reality that they do not have limitless numbers of top-quality players. By the final whistle at St James’ Park, Matthijs de Ligt, Mason Mount, Lisandro Martinez, Noussair Mazraoui and Patrick Dorgu were all absent because of injury. Casemiro and Luke Shaw were off the pitch feeling the effects of two hard games in four days. Carrick does not have the squad depth to cover those losses and still keep standards high.

So, embarrassingly, Manchester United lost against 10 men for the second time in just over three months. The damage was done by William Osula – a player who, as an 11-year-old, appeared on the pitch at Old Trafford to collect a Soccer Schools World Skills final victory prize.

His goal came after he got the better of Tyrell Malacia, who was making only his second appearance of a season he started as a member of Amorim’s ‘bomb squad’. The previous one was against Newcastle too.

The damage is not too bad though. Liverpool lost 24 hours earlier against the league’s bottom club before Aston Villa suffered a heavy home loss to Chelsea on Wednesday.

Manchester United remain third. They remain, out of the sides scrapping it out for three Champions League places in addition to the ones Arsenal and Manchester City will claim, the ones with no European or domestic cup distractions.

“We need to learn from this,” said Carrick.

“There is no sense in not learning lessons and understanding how tonight happened.

“We can’t lose sight of the bigger picture though – we have put ourselves into a position that can be really exciting.

“We’ve got to be positive going into the next game and look forward to it because there is a lot to play for.”

Carrick is right about that.