Soccer
Michael Carrick says Man Utd will ‘wait and see’ as transfer deadline looms
Michael Carrick admits Manchester United could be active before the transfer deadline and says Marcus Rashford feels like a new signing after the returning forward helped secure a 5-2 win against Ipswich.
Having kicked off their Premier League campaign with a shock 2-0 loss at Hull, the Red Devils overcame a shaky start against another promoted side to roar to a much-needed Old Trafford victory.
Leif Davis put Ipswich ahead on Sunday but United capitalised on a slip to level through Bruno Fernandes, before Harry Maguire survived a VAR check for handball when his effort went in off Jacob Greaves.
Skipper Fernandes scored two more to complete his hat-trick and then set up Bryan Mbeumo to add gloss on a day that ended with Chuba Akpom scoring a consolation goal for the visitors.
“It’s a week in football, isn’t it?” head coach Carrick said. “The ups and downs.
“The biggest pleasing thing for me was, we spoke about actually in the week, about dealing with setbacks, really.
“If you want to be a good team and a successful team, every team gets beat or you’ve got to deal with setbacks in certain ways – whether that’s momentum in the game, whether that’s a goal in the game, whether that’s losing a game or a run of games, whatever it may be. You’ve got to deal with the setback.”
United managed that after Luke Shaw was all too easily beaten by Abdul Fatawu to cross for Davis to give Ipswich the advantage and highlight United’s left-back issues.
An addition in that area is among the possibilities before Tuesday’s transfer deadline – a point many at the start of the window predicted Rashford would have left by.
Instead, the 28-year-old has parked any frustration about Barcelona not making his loan permanent to return to the fold, impressing from the outset on his first Old Trafford appearance in 90 weeks.
Asked about potential transfer activity, United boss Carrick said: “It’s always difficult to say, to be honest, when there’s so little time left.
“I think the situation that we’re in, I think the business that we’ve managed to do, I’m pleased with. I think we’re a better group, a better squad, potentially a better team.
“Adding Marcus into that feels like a new signing, so in that respect we’re quite happy.
“We’re always open to it if there’s something else to be able to add, so I wouldn’t shut that down. But as it stands, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Ipswich could also make additions on the back of a loss when Greaves’ own goal after a Maguire handball was a key moment.
Asked about the handball not being punished by the VAR due to his shot being off target, boss Gary O’Neil said: “Yeah, it’s a strange rule, I guess. Difficult rule to ref as well.
“I can accept it, of course, and the game transpires to be what it is after anyway, but the goalscorer makes a blatant handball.
“His shot ends up in the goal, so you would expect that to be enough for it to be disallowed but I understand that it is the rule at the moment, so we accept it, same as the result today.
“We gave everything. I asked the players to commit. They did, they gave everything.
“We caused Man United some problems. We came up short, so we commit to what we do, and then we accept the consequences, so same with the refereeing decisions.”
