Manchester United boss Michael Carrick has downplayed talk about the Premier League relegation battle. United suffered a 2-0 loss against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday to continue their poor form.
The Red Devils have managed only a solitary win in nine games of the Premier League and have seven points under their belt. They are in 17th place, and they are currently one place away from the relegation zone.
United, who have not been relegated since 1974, are going to have their work cut out in the upcoming matches and the pressure is certainly rising on Carrick’s job.
“Not for me, no,” Carrick said in response to the question. “We’ve got to keep moving forward and winning games, simple as that.
“There’s no words that I’m going to explain to you now that makes it [being in relegation zone] any difference, it’s not going to change it.
“We’ve got to move forward and win football matches, it’s as simple as that.”
Carrick said that his team can escape the relegation zone by “winning matches.”
“You can look at it like that [negatively] and you can look at how far you can move up the league quite quickly if you win football matches,” he said. “So that’s the way it’s got to be approached, for sure.”
The former Manchester United midfielder admitted his team failed to capitalise on the chances, especially in the first half.
“I think it was as good as we’ve played for some time in the first half,” Carrick said. “We looked dangerous, we looked fluid, we looked like a good team and we looked really dangerous.
“We could, should, have scored one or two, maybe three even with the chances and the spaces that we created, and then the game gets away from us.
“The second half got away from us, which is something we’ve got to deal with, you know.
“Sometimes you get setbacks in games and you’ve got to deal with that better, you know, from being in such a good place first half.
“The two halves of football probably couldn’t be further apart in some ways.”
United will next take on Roma in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.
