Manchester United Manager Michael Carrick has admitted his side make the same mistakes too often after watching them collapse in a Defeat by 2-0 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
United put in an encouraging first-half performance but could not make their chances count before Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer struck after the break to condemn the visitors to another. Premier League defeat
Carrick was particularly frustrated by how quickly the game got away from his players, with the dismissal of Lisandro Martinez leaving United to finish the game with 10 men.
United looked the more threatening team in the first 45 minutes, with Matheus Cunha having a goal ruled out by VAR and many other chances going begging.
However, Chelsea took the lead through Rogers after the break before Palmer converted a penalty following Martinez’s second yellow card.
Speaking to MUTV after the game, Carrick admitted that United should have done more of their dominance in the first half.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what it was. You know that was as good as we’ve played for a while in the first half, coming here and playing like that,” he said.
“Looking so dangerous and having chances and chances, and we could have created more chances with the spaces we opened up.”
The United boss admitted that failing to capitalize on those opportunities ultimately proved costly.
“So going into half-time, there’s a positive feeling but a bit of disappointment, knowing we hadn’t capitalized on such a good performance.”
Carrick also questioned why his side struggled to maintain their level after the restart.
“We never really got going in the second half. It started a little bit bad and then they scored really quickly and then the game completely changes.”
Carrick calls for improvement after another Man Utd setback
The defeat adds to the pressure on Carrick, whose side have struggled for consistency during a difficult start to the campaign.
Despite finding positives in United’s first half, the former midfielder admitted the team’s inability to handle difficult periods has become a recurring problem.
“I think I take a lot of the positives from the first half,” explained Carrick.
“I think we’ll still pull through, but find a way to let the game develop and get away from us. It’s happened too often, so we’ve got to learn from that and do something about it pretty quickly.
“We are a big football club and we want to win football games,” he said.
“The fans come and, I’ve said many times, they make a lot of effort, they pay a lot of money to see us play.”
