Carrick: We do not want to concede, but today’s situation was different from previous games

In the third round of the Premier League, Manchester United drew 2-2 away against Everton. After the match, Manchester United manager Carrick accepted an interview with the British media.

Michael, I imagine this must be very painful, conceding a goal like that with the final kick of the game.

Yes, of course. It is very painful.

But putting aside the loss of two points in the final moments, how would you evaluate the team's overall performance?

I think there were many things to be positive about in this match. We played some very good football and at times showed a strong attacking threat. Overall, as a team, I thought we defended quite well. As the game went on, the opponents obviously put more balls into our penalty area, but we made a few slightly poor decisions in dealing with those situations, which made the final stages of the match more difficult. In reality, we should have held on to the lead. So we are certainly disappointed that we could not take the win.

You mentioned some decisions. Which decisions were you disappointed with?

I will not go into that in detail for now. However, we really should have seen out the game, so we are disappointed about that.

Looking again at their two goals, do you think they were simply two world-class strikes, or were there areas where you could have done better defensively?

I think it was neither. To be fair, both of their goals were excellent shots. We did not give them any truly clear-cut chances, and I thought our defending was very good. They had a few occasions where the ball dropped around the edge of the penalty area and created shooting opportunities, but we blocked them in time. Overall, our defending inside the penalty area was quite good. Of course, we will analyze how they eventually created those opportunities, but there is no denying that those were two outstanding finishes.

Speaking of positives, Mbeumo scored a brilliant goal, and Sesko also scored after coming on as a substitute. You can certainly see positives from those aspects.

Of course, there were many positives. I think during some stages of the match, especially at the beginning, we played very good football. It was not as good toward the end of the game, but overall we did many good things. As I said, we looked threatening and caused the opponents a lot of problems at certain stages. Both goals were excellent, each with its own qualities. Especially the second goal, given the circumstances at the time, should have been the winning goal that helped us secure victory.

You have conceded two goals in three consecutive matches, with the same happening against Ipswich and Hull City before. Is this the main issue you need to focus on solving right now?

Of course, we do not want to concede goals. However, I think today's situation was different from the previous few matches. The more important thing today was how to completely finish off the game, because at that point we were actually in a very favorable position.