Carrick rejects pressing criticism as Manchester United seek Bournemouth response

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick has dismissed criticism of his team’s running and pressing statistics as he prepares for Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Bournemouth at Old Trafford.

United are without a win in their past seven matches in all competitions, a difficult run which included a heavy midweek Champions League defeat by Serie A side Como.

The team’s work rate has come under scrutiny during that spell, with particular attention paid to the intensity of their pressing and the distances covered by players. Carrick, however, said those figures did not provide a complete explanation for his side’s performances.

“You’ve got to be careful with just saying ‘not running’. We’ve won a lot of games over a period of time and this pressing thing; pressing is one small part of football,” he said.

Carrick questioned what is meant by the term pressing and whether it is always the correct approach for a team to take.

“There are all sorts of different ways that are classed as a press. What actually is it? What are you doing it for? Is it to your strength? Is it covering up other spaces?” he said.

The Manchester United head coach added that pressing had become an overused description of how teams should play, arguing that it was not essential in every match.

“It’s just thrown about as a bit of a word at the minute. You don’t necessarily need to press to win games of football. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t,” Carrick said.

“It’s not necessarily just running stats that define football games either.”

United’s current run has increased scrutiny on Carrick’s position, but he said the side needed to recover elements of its previous performances rather than focus solely on statistical measures.

“We’ve just got to get back to doing a lot of the things that we were doing last season and for certain parts of this season,” he said.

Carrick insisted he retained full confidence in the players available to him and believes they can change the direction of the team’s form against Bournemouth.

“I definitely trust them, 100%. We’ll be a different team on Sunday. We have to be a different team on Sunday,” he said.

The fixture at Old Trafford gives Manchester United the opportunity to end their seven-match run without a victory, although Carrick accepts his team must produce a markedly improved display to do so.