Adelighted Michael Carrick praised how Manchester United bounced back from the opening-weekend defeat at Hull with their 5-2 rout of Ipswich.
Bruno Fernandes’s hattrick, scored in the 40th, 61st and 68th minutes, ensured United’s comeback win after Leif Davis’s opener. A Jacob Greaves own goal after 56 minutes and Bryan Mbeumo’s 82nd-minute strike completed the home scoring, Chuka Akpom’s added-time finish giving Ipswich their second.
This was the first time United had scored five in the Premier League since the opening day of the 2021-22 season, a 5-1 home win over Leeds that also included a Fernandes hat-trick.
Carrick was delighted by the manner of United’s reaction to last week’s disappointing 2-0 defeat at Hull.
“It’s a week in football, isn’t it? The ups and downs,” said the manager.
“The biggest pleasing thing was – we spoke about in the week, about dealing with setbacks if you want to be a successful team. Every team gets beaten. You’ve got to deal with setbacks, whether that’s momentum in the game, whether that’s a goal, whether that’s losing a game or a run of games, whatever it may be. You’ve got to deal with the setback.
“We spoke before about trying to overcome last week, and then we took a mini setback if you like, going a goal behind. But showing stubbornness, belief, confidence, and togetherness the boys showed at that stage – in a small part, because we’re so early in the season – I think that was really pleasing for me. The way they bounced back, that’s probably the biggest thing to take. There are a lot of highlights, but that mentality was what we really relied on today (Sunday).”
Of Fernandes, who has led the side since January 2020, Carrick said: “He means a lot to us. He’s the captain, he’s been here for a good number of years now.
“He’s experienced a whole load of different emotions, different things. He’s got a lot of experience to pass on and show them the way a little bit, and lead by example, help in different moments.”