Michael Carrick has backed Robin van Persie to return to his clinical best after Manchester United’s dominant 3-0 victory over Hull at the weekend.
The 33-year-old midfielder has full confidence in the Dutch forward who had come under scrutiny for less-than-impressive performances this season, particularly in United’s win over Arsenal.
“We all get criticised at certain times and it’s something you have to deal with,” Carrick said. “The best way to answer it is the way he did it against Hull.
“Robin scored a great goal and hopefully that will be the start of a good run over the weeks to come.”
And Carrick has also pointed to the fear factor of United’s other forwards when they’re on form.
He said: “When you have got him scoring, Wayne scoring and Falcao coming off the bench and nearly scoring, we’ll be a threat to anyone. You want those boys when they’re flying and it’s scary to play against.
“What Robin and Wayne did against Hull, we’ve seen that happen so often in the past and hopefully we’ll see that in the coming weeks again. It gives the whole team huge confidence and belief that, even if we’re not playing great, we’re always in the game.”
The former Spurs star, who signed for United in 2006, feels that Louis van Gaal’s side can go on a tear and claw themselves back to the United of old.
“I think everyone in the stadium felt it was a good performance and that’s the sort of standard we want to be at – dominating teams and winning.
“We’ve done it in the past but the past is the past. We need to do it again and hopefully as time goes on we can carry on like this and that fear factor will creep back.”
Manchester United host Stoke City on Tuesday night and Carrick has highlighted the importance of taking each game as it comes, rather than getting carried away with United’s current run of form.
“Arsenal was a huge result for us, but the performance wasn’t great. We got the performance for long periods against Hull, winning comfortably in the end, so we will look to keep that going against Stoke.
“But we can’t look too far ahead. We’ve never done that. We’ve never said, ‘Right, we need to go on a 10 or 15-game run’. It’s bit by bit.”
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