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Football

26th Jan 2017

Michael Carrick gives brutally honest assessment of Manchester United’s performance against Hull City

He didn't look like a man who was on the way to Wembley

Ben Kiely

Manchester United’s 17-match unbeaten run came crashing to an end in the EFL cup on Thursday night.

They may be on the way to Wembley, but United didn’t give their fans much to be positive about with their 2-1 loss to Hull City in the EFL cup semi-final second leg.

Up 2-0 from the first leg, the Red Devils went through 3-2 on aggregate, but a lot of the players seemed to underperform at the KCOM Stadium.

This left a weird atmosphere at the full-time whistle. On the one hand, they were through to a cup final and have a genuine chance of winning some silverware this season, but a repeat performance on February 26 could see them fall at the last hurdle to Southampton.

One man who definitely wasn’t thrilled about his side’s showing against the Tigers was Michael Carrick. The Englishman wore the captain’s armband against Hull and he spoke about the game with a dejected tone to Sky Sports after the game.

“Oh I wouldn’t say it was relief, to be honest with you it was more disappointment at the end. It was a strange feeling in many ways. We just wanted to keep our run going and our form going.

“We had a massive opportunity to get to the final and we didn’t play well at all really.”

Carrick admitted it was an odd sensation because it didn’t really feel like a performance that earned a spot in the final. He vowed that the team would bounce back from the defeat.

“Of course, we’re delighted to get to the final and we’ll bounce into the next game, but it’s a bit of a strange feeling at the moment.”

“We expected them to have a good game, we expected them to come at us – we just didn’t play well. We’re disappointed to lose the game. We don’t like losing. Obviously we can take something from it, we can take a final from it, so we’re delighted, but we’re very disappointed.”

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